Understanding suicidal thoughts and behaviors in Black youth within the child welfare system: An exploration of protective factors.

BACKGROUND: Child welfare system (CWS)-involved youth are over two times more likely to experience suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) compared to youth without involvement and Black youth are overrepresented in the CWS. Research is needed to determine both risk and protection against STBs for CWS-involved Black youth. OBJECTIVE: Examine how social processes confer risk and protection against STBs in CWS-involved Black youth. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) used. Black youth with one+ follow-up of data between 7 and 17 years included (n = 1235). METHODS: STBs, social skills, child loneliness, child maltreatment, and demographics were investigated, imputation was completed for missing data, autoregressive logistic regression model used, and interactions by sex and age were examined. RESULTS: Previous STBs associated with future STBs (OR = 1.87,95 %CI = 1.45-2.40). Higher parent- and teacher-rated social skills were associated with lower odds of STBs (OR = 0.86,95 %CI = 0.77-0.96). Higher levels of child loneliness and social dissatisfaction were associated with higher odds of STBs (OR = 1.12,95 %CI = 1.00-1.25). Finally, significant interactions for age; ages 11-14 (OR = 0.49,95 %CI = 0.34-0.69) and 15-17 (OR = 0.45,95 %CI = 0.24-0.83) lower odds of STBs compared to the 7-10-year age group. CONCLUSIONS: Stronger social skills and lower loneliness may protect against STBs in CWS-involved Black youth. Prevention programs increasing social skills and decreasing loneliness may lead to lower STBs in this vulnerable population.