Reexamining adolescent suicidal ideation: A developmental perspective applied to a diverse population

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that suicidal ideation is a common experience in a general population of African American, Hispan ic, and White urban high school students residing in low-income neighborhoo ds. Based ripen a developmental framework, it was hypothesized that once at titudes toward suicide were controlled, ideation would not vary significant ly by ethnicity, gender, or psychosocial variables usually associated with ideation. The multivariate analysis revealed that ideation did not vary by ethnicity however, females, substance users, and those with,greater toleran ce toward suicide, higher family coping, and lower self-esteem were more li kely to report ideation. A series of ideator profiles, calculated from the probability estimates, showed that an increase in tolerance substantially r aises the likelihood of ideation. The results taken together raise the ques tion of whether it is time to reconceptualize the relationship between idea tion and normal adolescent development.