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Psychopathology, social support, and interpersonal orientation were studied in relation to suicide attempt status in acutely suicidal, psychiatrically hospitalized Black adolescents and a matched sample of White adolescents. In the total sample, multiple attempters were differentiated by lower perceived support. Within the Black youth subsample, social comparison and positive stimulation from others differentiated multiple attempters from single attempters/ideators. Only suicidal ideation predicted multiple attempts among White youth and only higher interpersonal orientation predicted multiple suicide attempts within Black adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite evidence of considerable racial/ethnic variation in adolescent suicidal behavior in the United States, research on youth of European American descent accounts for much of what is know about preventing adolescent suicide. In response to the need to advance research on the phenomenology and prevention of suicidal behavior among ethnic minority populations, NIMH co-sponsored the "Pragmatic Considerations of Culture in Preventing Suicide" workshop to elicit through interdisciplinary dialogue how culture can be considered in the design, development, and implementation of suicidal behavior prevention programs. In this discussion paper we consider the three ethnic minority suicide prevention efforts described in the articles appearing in this issue, along with workshop participants' comments, and propose six major areas where issues of culture need to be better integrated into suicidal behavior research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between adolescents' and young adults' attitudes toward suicide and their own suicidality across five racial-ethnic classifications was studied in a nationally representative sample of 3,301 youth ages 14 to 22 years from the National Annenberg Risk Survey of Youth. Results indicate that adolescents and young adults who most strongly believe that it is acceptable to end one's life are more than fourteen times more likely to make a plan to kill themselves as those who do not have such beliefs (p < .001). Future behavioral prevention and intervention research should take into consideration adolescents' and young adults' approval of suicide as a risk factor for taking their own lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the prevalence and the possible triggers of suicide among African American men. It states that suicidal risks in American Africans are higher despite a lesser number of suicide incidences when compared with whites. It also says that firearm-related suicide in the said ethnic group became prevalent between 1979 and 1997. Moreover, it highlights certain interventions and psychiatric methods that can curb down suicidality among African American men.

The article introduces three studies in this issue: "Developing Suicide Prevention Programs for African American Youth in African American Churches," by Sherry Molock and colleagues; "Suicidal Behavior in Latinas: Explanatory Cultural Factors and Implications for Intervention," by Luis Zayas, Allyson Pilat, and Eva Morales; and "The Zuni Life Skills Development Program: A School/Community-Based Suicide Prevention Intervention," by Teresa LaFromboise and Hayes A. Lewis.