Social Ecology and the Prevention of Suicide and Aggression in African American Youth

Summary

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of a culturally-grounded, school-based suicide and aggression preventive intervention for African American adolescents (Adapted-Coping with Stress Course \[A-CWS\]). The A-CWS is a 15-session, cognitive-behavioral group intervention designed to develop and enhance African American youths' skills for coping with stress. Emphasis is given to the identification of stress unique to the day-to-day experiences of the youths and options for reducing stress that are culturally consistent. A total of four public high schools in a large Midwestern metropolitan area participated in this study that used a randomized-controlled design, with randomization occurring at the individual level. Participants were randomized either to the A-CWS intervention condition, or to a standard care control condition. This study had three hypotheses: (1) The intervention would raise adaptive coping, relative to the standard care control condition; (2) coping skills would explain the effects of the A-CWS intervention on problematic outcomes (i.e., suicidality, aggression); and (3) socio-ecological factors (i.e., neighborhood and family characteristics) would influence the effect of the A-CWS intervention on coping skills, and the effect of coping skills on problematic outcomes.

Conditions

• Suicide
• Aggression

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

A-CWS

The A-CWS intervention is a 15-session culturally-grounded, cognitive-behavioral group intervention designed to develop and enhance African American youths' skills for coping with stress. The intervention structure allows implementation within traditional school and other community settings. The A-CWS uses standard cognitive-behavioral strategies (e.g., relaxation training, cognitive restructuring) to help African American youth identify and cope with individual and contextual stressors, using culturally consistent coping strategies. The intervention emphasizes the identification and management of stressors associated with suicide risk (e.g., racism-related stress, community violence exposure) and the unique experiences of low-resourced, urban African American adolescents (e.g., community violence exposure). The structured, manualized A-CWS curriculum is designed to be sustainable and user-friendly, to ensure that the A-CWS is delivered effectively and with a high degree of fidelity.

BEHAVIORAL

Standard Care Control

The standard care control condition consisted of standard case management services delivered by the SBHC. Participants randomly assigned to the standard care control condition were referred to the SBHC social worker for case management. Standard care ranged from brief intervention by the SBHC social worker, to more intensive intervention by the SBHC social worker, to outside referral to local community service providers. SBHC social workers determined type and duration of services based on individual participant needs.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

  collaborator NIH

• DePaul University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• LaVome Robinson, Ph.D. · DePaul University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-02-05

Primary Completion

2020-07-31

Completion

2020-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations