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Objective: To examine the association between supportive environments and adolescent suicidal behavior, especially among marginalized minority groups., Methods: Participants included 12,196 middle and 16,981 high school students who completed the 2019 Vermont Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Multiple logistic regression models were used to assess the association between three protective factors that were part of a supportive environment (feeling like they matter to people in their community, usually eating dinner at home, having a trusted adult) and suicidality (plan or attempt), controlling for key demographics (sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and race/ethnicity). Moderating effects of demographics were also explored., Results: All supportive environment variables were protective of making a suicide plan and making a suicide attempt (ORs < 0.75, p -values < 0.005). Students of minority identities were significantly more likely to make a suicide plan (middle school ORs: 1.34-3.51, p -values < 0.0005; high school ORs: 1.19-3.38, p -values < 0.02) and attempt suicide (middle school ORs: 1.42-3.72, p -values < 0.006; high school ORs: 1.38-3.25, p -values < 0.0005) compared to students with majority demographic characteristics. Generally, the associations between having a supportive environment and suicidality did not vary within sexual orientation, gender identify, or race/ethnicity subgroups, suggesting that these supportive environment factors were more universally protective. However, a few associations were stronger among students in the majority demographic groups., Conclusions: These data suggest that having a supportive environment is protective of suicidality for adolescents from both majority and minority demographic groups.

Objective: To test the association between the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism and both aggressive behavior and attention problems in youth. We hypothesized that youth carrying a Met allele would have greater average aggressive behavior scores, and that youth exhibiting Val-homozygosity would have greater average attention problems scores., Method: Complete data on maternally rated Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) measures of aggressive behavior (AGG) and attention problems (AP), COMT polymorphism data, demographics, and maternal parenting quality were available for 149 youth (6 to 18 years old). Multivariable linear regression models were used to test the degree to which youth COMT Val158Met genotype was associated with AGG and AP while statistically controlling for age, gender, parental socioeconomic status (SES), and maternal parenting quality from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire., Results: Mothers of Met-carriers rated their children higher on average AGG scores when compared with mothers of Val-homozygotes (p = .016). Further analyses revealed that this association was even more robust for maternal ratings of direct aggression (p = .007). The hypothesized association between Val-homozygosity and higher average AP scores relative to average AP scores of Met-carriers did not quite reach statistical significance (p = .062)., Conclusions: After controlling for demographics, SES, and maternal parenting quality as confounders, there remains a strong association between youth carrying a Met allele and higher average AGG scores relative to Val-homozygotes., (2010 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)