Journal Information

Voted One of the 100 Most Influential Journals in Biology & Medicine over the last 100 Years

 by the Special Libraries Association

Selected as a core journal  by the Medical Library Association (Public Health)


Recommend & Share


 • 
 CiteULike

Volume 100, Issue 9 (September 2010)
Yongwen Jiang, Donald Kent Perry, and Jana Earl Hesser Suicide Patterns and Association With Predictors Among Rhode Island Public High School Students: A Latent Class Analysis. American Journal of Public Health: September 2010, Vol. 100, No. 9, pp. 1701-1707.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.183483

Accepted on: Jan 9, 2010

Suicide Patterns and Association With Predictors Among Rhode Island Public High School Students: A Latent Class Analysis

Yongwen Jiang, PhD, Donald Kent Perry, MPA, and Jana Earl Hesser, PhD

At the time of the study, Yongwen Jiang, Donald Kent Perry, and Jana Earl Hesser were with Center for Health Data and Analysis, Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence. Yongwen Jiang and Jana Earl Hesser were also with Department of Community Health, School of Medicine, Brown University, Providence, RI.

Correspondence should be sent to Yongwen Jiang, Center for Health Data and Analysis, Rhode Island Department of Health, 3 Capitol Hill, Providence, RI 02908 (e-mail: ). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking the “Reprints/Eprints” link.

Peer Reviewed

Contributors

Y. Jiang prepared the database, conducted the literature review, collaborated on analytic decisions and data interpretation, performed the statistical analyses, prepared the data table and figure, and drafted the article. D. K. Perry manages the Rhode Island YRBS and oversees survey implementation; he collaborated on analytic decisions and data interpretation, and revised and edited the article. J. E. Hesser directly supervised the other authors, and assisted in the editing and revising of the article. All the authors helped to conceptualize ideas, interpret findings, review drafts, and approve the final version of the article.



ABSTRACT

Objectives. We analyzed Rhode Island's 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data to investigate suicide patterns and their association with suicide risk predictors among public high school students.

Methods. We used latent class regression analysis of Rhode Island's 2007 YRBS data (from a random sample of 2210 public high school students) to model latent classes of suicide risk and identify predictors of latent class membership.

Results. Four latent classes of suicide risk were modeled and predictors were associated with each: class 1 (emotionally healthy, 74%); class 2 (considered and planned suicide, 14%) was associated with being female, having low grades, being gay/lesbian/bisexual/unsure, feeling unsafe at school, having experienced forced sexual intercourse, and self-perceived overweight; class 3 (attempted suicide, 6%) was associated with speaking a language other than English at home, being gay/lesbian/bisexual/unsure, feeling unsafe at school, and forced sexual intercourse; and class 4 (planned and attempted suicide, 6%) was associated with the previously mentioned predictors and with being in 9th or 10th grade and currently smoking.

Conclusions. A single model characterized and quantified 4 patterns of suicide risk among adolescents and identified predictors for 3 at-risk classes. Interventions for high-risk youths may help prevent adolescent suicides.