Methods Design and Sample Selection

1. Healthy Teens was funded by the Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Pamela Orpinas is the Principal Investigator for this study. Dating Violence as Predictor of Suicidal Thoughts and Plans among Adolescents Healthy Teens Longitudinal Study The University of Georgia Lusine Nahapetyan, MPH; Pamela Orpinas, PhD; Xiao Song, PhD; Caroline McNicholas , MA Background Adolescent suicide and physical dating violence (PDV) are serious public health problems that affect many teenagers and their families in the US. According to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey,one in six high school students in the US in 2011 reported suicidal thoughts and one in eight reported suicidal plans. Multiple cross-sectional studies have found association between suicidal ideation and PDV victimization and perpetration in adolescents. Research examining link between suicidal ideation and PDV throughout high school is limited. Results (cont.) Multivariate Associations between Suicidal Ideation, Gender and PDV PDV victimization had the highest magnitude of effect. After controlling the effects of gender, PDV perpetration, and year of assessment, adolescents who reported PDV victimization were 2.03 times more likely to report suicidal ideation than adolescents that did not. Additionally, Female gender, PDV perpetration, and being in Grades 9 to 11 in high school were significant predictors of suicidal ideation (Table 2). • Data Analyses • Chi-square tests of association for preliminary analyses. • Generalized estimating equations (GEE) to fit repeated measures logistic regression. Outcome variable: Suicidal ideation (Yes/No). Predictors: Gender, race (White, Black, Latino, Other), PDV victimization (Yes/No), PDV perpetration (Yes/No), grade level (9th-12th). • Quasi-likelihood information criterion (QIC) was used for model selection. We fitted different working correlation structures (independence, unstructured, AR(1), and compound symmetry) and used QIC to choose the best fitting model. We reported the results under AR (1) working correlation structures. We used SAS 9.2 to conduct analyses. • Results • Descriptive Statistics • One in seven students in Grades 9 to 11 reported suicidal ideation, but fewer students (9.4%) reported suicidal ideation in Grade 12. More girls than boys reported suicidal ideation in all grades, but this difference was statistically significant only in Grade 9. Proportion of students reporting suicidal ideation did not vary significantly by race/ethnicity (Table 1). • Significantly more girls than boys reported PDV perpetration in all grades, and significantly more boys than girls reported PDV victimization from Grades 9 to 11. Significantly more African Americans reported PVD perpetration and victimization (Table 1). • Cumulatively, over four years of assessment one fourth of the sample reported suicidal ideation at least once (Figure 1). • Table 1. Prevalence of Suicidal Ideation, PDV Perpetration and Victimization • Purpose • The purpose of this presentation is to examine the association between PDV and suicidal ideation in a randomly selected longitudinal cohort of students evaluated annually from Grades 9-12. Table 2. Predictors of suicidal ideation • Methods • Design and Sample Selection • We used data from Healthy Teens study, a 7-year longitudinal study examining different levels of risk and protective factors that influence developmental trajectories of adolescents. Students were randomly selected and assessed annually in spring from Grades 6 to 12. • Because questions about suicide were only asked in high school, the present study used data collected from Grades 9 to 12. Thefinal sample consisted of 556 students, who reported dating at least in one assessment (50.2% boys; 47.5% White, 37.8% Black, 11.2% Latino). • Measures • Suicidal ideation: During the past 12 months, did you ever seriously consider attempting suicide? During the past 12 months, did you make a plan about how you would attempt suicide? • Dating:In the last 3 months, have you had a boyfriend or girlfriend (someone that you dated, gone out with, gone steady with)? • PDV perpetration (7 items, α range across grades= 0.89 - 0.91): Measured frequency of physical aggression acts against dating partners during the 3 months prior to survey administration: scratched, slapped, pushed or shoved, punched or hit, slammed against a wall, kicked, threw something that could hurt. • PDV victimization (7 items, α range across grades= 0.89 - 0.97): Measured frequency of being a victim of the same behaviors during the 3 months prior to survey administration. Responses were dichotomized to (0) no PDV and (1) one or more acts of PDV. Summary and Conclusions Cumulative prevalence rates of suicidal ideation were high One in four adolescents reported suicidal ideation at least in one assessment. However, it is important to underscore that three-fourth of the sample never reported suicidal ideation over four years of assessment. Therefore, given limited resources, interventions in suicide prevention should first identify and target high-risk adolescents. Both PDV victimization and perpetration were significant predictors of suicidal ideation in adolescents Being a victim of physical dating violence was the strongest predictor of suicidal ideation, even after controlling for the effects of gender, PDV perpetration, and year of assessment. Girls were more likely to report suicidal ideation than boys Female gender significantly increased the odds of suicidal ideation 1.7 times in this sample. Adolescents were more likely to report suicidal ideation in earlier grades in high school compared to twelfth grade These results suggest that it is important to start suicide prevention interventions early in high school. This study highlighted the detrimental emotional effects of PDV victimization and perpetration in adolescents over time and the importance of including dating violence education and prevention strategies in the suicide prevention programs in high schools. Note: Significantly higher number of students than expected reported behavior, p< 0.05 Figure1. Cumulative Frequency of Suicidal Ideation in High School Questions may be addressed to: Nahapetyan at lusine@uga.edu