Exposure to Suicide in High Schools: Impact on Serious Suicidal Ideation/Behavior, Depression, Maladaptive Coping Strategies, and Attitudes toward Help-Seeking

Madelyn S. Gould, Alison M. Lake, Marjorie Kleinman, Hanga Galfalvy, Saba Chowdhury and Alison Madnick
Additional contact information
Madelyn S. Gould: Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Medical Center and The New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 72, New York, NY 10032, USA
Alison M. Lake: Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, The New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 72, New York, NY 10032, USA
Marjorie Kleinman: Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, The New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 72, New York, NY 10032, USA
Hanga Galfalvy: Departments of Psychiatry and Biostatistics, Columbia University Medical Center, 722 West 168 Street, New York, NY 10032, USA
Saba Chowdhury: Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, The New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 72, New York, NY 10032, USA
Alison Madnick: Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, The New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 72, New York, NY 10032, USA

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: Adolescents’ exposure to a peer’s suicide has been found to be associated with, as well as to predict, suicidal ideation and behavior. Although postvention efforts tend to be school-based, little is known about the impact of a schoolmate’s suicide on the school’s student population overall. The present study seeks to determine whether there is excess psychological morbidity among students in a school where a schoolmate has died by suicide, and whether students’ attitudes about coping and help-seeking strategies are more or less problematic in such schools. Students in twelve high schools in Suffolk and Westchester counties in New York State—2865 students at six schools where a student had died by suicide within the past six months, and 2419 students at six schools where no suicide had occurred within the current students’ tenure—completed an assessment of their suicidal ideation and behavior, depressive symptoms, coping and help-seeking attitudes, stressful life events, and friendship with suicide decedent (if applicable). No excess morbidity (i.e., serious suicidal ideation/behavior and depression) was evident among the general student population after a schoolmate’s death by suicide; however, the risk of serious suicidal ideation/behavior was elevated among students at exposed schools who had concomitant negative life events. There was a significant relationship between friendship with the decedent and morbidity, in that students who were friends, but not close friends, of the decedents had the greatest odds of serious suicidal ideation/behavior. Overall, students in exposed schools had more adaptive attitudes toward help-seeking; but this was not true of the decedents’ friends or students with concomitant negative life events. The implications of the findings for postvention strategies are discussed.

Keywords: suicide; peers; exposure; negative life events; friendship; maladaptive coping attitudes; help-seeking attitudes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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