Suicidal Behavior among African American College Students: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

This preliminary study examined suicidality in 233 African American college students who attended a historically Black college. Suicidality involves both suicidal ideation and suicidal behaviors. Suicidal ideation includes the thoughts andfeelings that are often associated with suicidal behavior (e.g., developing a suicide plan, preoccupation with thoughts of death, etc.). Suicidal behavior involves the deliberate attempt to take one's life. The results indicate that the suicidality among African American college students is similar to the suicidality manifested in White American college students with the exception of two critical areas: African American college students report less suicidal ideation than the literature reports on White American college students, andfewerAfrican American than White college students use alcohol or illicit drugs while making a suicide attempt. This study also found preliminary evidence that suggests that the measures typically used to measure suicide and its correlates in White American samples (e.g., Beck Depression Inventory and the Scale for Suicidal Ideation) appear to reliably measure these phenomena in an African American sample as well. Issues pertaining to the role of the supportive Black institution in ameliorating the stress associated with suicidal behavior and methodological concerns regarding the measurement of depression, suicidal ideation, and suicidal attempts in African American college students are discussed.