Preventing Suicide in African American Adolescents

DePaul University

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Suicide

Treatments

Behavioral: Standard Care Control Condition

Behavioral: Robinson's Culturally Adapted Coping with Stress Course (A-CWS)

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

NIH

Identifiers

NCT04253002

LR060519PSY

1R01MH1183182 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The overarching aim of the Success Over Stress Prevention Project is to reduce African American youth suicide. This study examines the impact of a 15-session, group-delivered, culturally-grounded, cognitive-behavioral intervention (i.e., PI Robinson's Adapted-Coping with Stress Course [A-CWS]), on the outcomes of interest, when it is delivered by social workers who are indigenous to the school system. The main objectives of this project are to (a) determine whether the intervention is effective when facilitated by social workers who are indigenous to the school system and (b) enhance resilience, increase adaptive coping strategies, and reduce both intrapersonal and interpersonal violence among youth receiving the prevention intervention. It is expected that increases in adaptive coping will lead to an increased ability for youth to manage stressors, thereby decreasing the incidence of suicide and violence among the youth. In addition, it is expected that evidence of the intervention's effectiveness, when facilitated by social workers who are indigenous to the school system, will lead to greater dissemination and sustainability of the intervention, thus, providing access to effective intervention resources to greater numbers of African American youth.

Full description

This study will establish the effectiveness of Robinson's Adapted-Coping with Stress Course (A-CWS) and test hypotheses pertaining to the mechanism of change by which the A-CWS reduces suicide risk. Additionally, this study is expected to augment current theoretical models of adolescent suicidality. This effectiveness trial will inform procedures for scaling up efficacious, high quality, and culturally-grounded suicide prevention programs for low-resourced, urban African American youth; as such, this study is practice relevant and expected to inform best practices for the prevention of suicide among African American adolescents. The specific aims are:

To examine the effectiveness of the A-CWS intervention, as delivered by social workers who are indigenous to the school system, to reduce active suicidal ideation, within a sample of low-resourced, urban African American adolescents.
To understand the mechanism by which the A-CWS intervention reduces suicide risk for low-resourced, urban African American adolescents.
To establish the fidelity of an evidence-based, culturally-grounded coping with stress intervention (i.e., the A-CWS), developed for low-resourced, urban African American adolescents, delivered by social workers indigenous to the school system.
To understand the extent that thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and socio-ecological factors influence the development of active suicidal ideation.

Enrollment

512 patients

Sex

All

Ages

12+ years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Students: Enrolled 9th grade student at time of initial enrollment at participating high school
Parents/guardians: Child enrolled in study
Teachers: Student enrolled in study

Exclusion criteria