Project Description Narrative:
In 2019, the Congressional Black Caucus issued a report to Congress: Ring the Alarm: The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America. The report documented the alarming trends in suicide among Black youth, who face the fastest rising suicide rates in our nation. Between 2007 and 2020, the suicide rate among Black youth ages 10-17 increased 144%. Data are particularly grim for Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, or other sexual or gender minority (LGBTQ+) youth; 51% of Black LGBTQ+ youth reported feeling sad or hopeless within the past year and 35% reported seriously considering suicide. The situation for youth in Wisconsin is similar; nearly half of LGBTQ+ youth have seriously considered suicide and over 20% have attempted suicide in the past year. These rates are nearly four times higher than what is experienced by heterosexual youth in the state. Since that report in 2019, things have not improved. In 2023, the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions issued a follow-up report, Still Ringing the Alarm: An Enduring Call to Action for Black Youth Suicide Prevention, noting that these disparities have persisted, issuing an urgent call for research and evidence-based interventions to improve the Black youth suicide crisis in the United States. This project responds to this call.
The researchers aim to address one particularly acute crisis: suicide among Black LGBTQ+ youth. Black LGBTQ+ youth in particular face unique intersectional challenges that increase their risk for suicide including racism, homophobia, family rejection, bullying, and social isolation and exclusion. Unfortunately, there are no existing evidence-based interventions that aim to reduce suicide among Black LGBTQ+ youth that were developed by or for these communities or consider their specific needs. The existing suicide prevention interventions were developed and tested primarily among white youth, and do not reflect the lived experiences of Black LGBTQ+ youth. The alarming disparities and the lack of appropriate interventions require a community-driven response that addresses these complex factors.
Sources of Strength (SOS) is a leading evidence-based suicide prevention intervention program for youth that focuses on building social support and resilience. Through the training of youth leaders and trusted adults, the program aims to foster needed social support, help youth identify signs of crisis among peers, and helps youth learn to help youth access needed community resources. While promising, the intervention has been criticized for primarily reflecting the experiences of white youth. In this study, the researchers will work with Black LGBTQ+ youth leaders to adapt SOS for Black LGBTQ+ youth with a goal of reducing the disparate suicide rates faced by this community.
A team of researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin's Center for AIDS Intervention Research and Division of Suicide Research and Healing will collaborate with community leaders at Diverse and Resilient and a youth leadership board to adapt SOS for Black LGBTQ+ youth. Then, they will conduct interviews with Black LGBTQ+ youth in Milwaukee to understand their current mental health needs and experiences. In collaboration with the youth leadership board and community partners at Diverse and Resilient, they will use the results from the interviews to begin to tailor the SOS intervention materials, manual, and approach to reflect the needs of Black LGBTQ+ youth in Milwaukee. Finally, they will implement the revised SOS intervention and collect mixed-methods data to evaluate how well the intervention is able to improve social support and mental health outcomes among this population. The research team plans to use the results from this study to apply for additional funding from the National Institutes of Health to test the adapted intervention on a larger scale.