Social Environment Factors Associated With Suicide Attempt Among low-Income African Americans: the Protective Role of Family Relationships and Social Support

This study focused on 2 dimensions of the social enviroment, family relationships & social support, as well as depressive symptoms in a case-control study of 200 African American men & women, aged 18-64 years, 100 of whom sought services at a public hospital after a suicide attempt & 100 who were controls. Lower levels of family adaptability & family cohesion increased the relative rate of suicide attempt in the sample. Lower levels of social embeddedness & social support increased the relative rate of suicide attempt. A mediating role of depression was discovered when depressive symptoms were entered into the logistic regression models. (51 refs.) JA