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UK Study Bridging Gap in Suicide Risk for Minorities

by Sarah Geegan & Tess Perica

Three University of Kentucky sociologists have co-authored a study that helps to fill a gap in our understanding of suicide risk among African-American women.

Appearing in the December issue of Social Psychology Quarterly (SPQ), the study, “Too Much of a Good Thing? Psychosocial Resources, Gendered Racism, and Suicidal Ideation among Low Socioeconomic Status African American Women,” examines the relationship between racial and gender discrimination and suicidal ideation, or thinking about and desiring to commit suicide. The co-authors on the study include Assistant Professor Brea L. Perry, Associate Professor Carrie B. Oser, and Ph.D. candidate Erin L. Pullen, all from the UK Department of Sociology.

In basic terms, the study examines risk and protective factors for mental health among African-American women with low socio-economic status. The researchers found that women who have experienced more race and gender-based discrimination have a higher risk of suicidal ideation, which replicates previous research on the positive correlation between discrimination and health.

However, the study goes even further to examine whether different psychosocial resources such as eudemonic well-being (sense of purpose in life), self-esteem, and active coping that have traditionally been found to be protective among white Americans can buffer the effects of racial and gender discrimination on suicidal ideation.

Perry said that some of the findings were unexpected.

 "We were somewhat surprised to find that moderate levels of eudemonic well-being, self-esteem and active coping are protective, while very high and low levels are not," Perry said.

Specifically, the study used data from 204 predominantly low-income African American women, collected as part of the Black Women in the Study of Epidemics (B-WISE) project. The study has helped to fill a gap in knowledge about suicide risk among African-American women because recent research suggests that rates of suicide attempt are high in this group, prompting a need for additional research on the topic.

All three researchers said they hope this study can impact students everywhere, including students at UK.

"I hope that this study can inform identification of African-American students who are at risk for suicidal ideation and point to some potential interventions for coping with discrimination," Perry said.

Perry believes the most important lesson learned from this study is that it is critical to examine culturally specific risk and protective processes in mental health.

"These findings demonstrate that it is not sufficient to simply study African-American women as one small part of an aggregated sample composed largely of whites," Perry said. "When we take that approach, we completely miss what is going on in smaller, underrepresented groups. We cannot assume that what is protective for white men, for example, is also protective for African-American women. There are specific historical and cultural circumstances and lived experiences that are unique to each racial and gender group, and these differentially shape factors that increase or decrease vulnerability and resilience."

B-WISE is funded by the National Institutes on Drug Abuse and housed in the UK Center on Drug and Alcohol Research (CDAR).  Oser is the Principle Investigator of the B-WISE project, Perry is a Co-Investigator and Pullen is the Study Director.  Other co-investigators on this study who were not involved in this paper include Michele Staton-Tindall in the UK College of Social Work as well as Carl Leukefeld and Jennifer Havens in the UK Department of Behavioral Science.

For more information on the study or its findings please contact the researchers by email — Perry, breaperry@uky.edu or Oser, carrie.oser@uky.edu.