Associate Professor Adelphi University GARDEN CITY, New York, United States
Abstract : The National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS) is the largest nationally representative household survey of Latino and Asian Americans and has been instrumental in the study of the mental health of two of the most rapidly expanding ethnic groups in the United States. These two ethnic groups have been historically under-represented in research on suicidality, which has also largely focused on risk, rather than resilience, factors. The present study seeks to compare both risk and protective factors associated with lifetime and 12-month experiences of suicidal ideation (SI) and attempts (SA) in Latino and Asian Americans using the NLAAS. Discrimination, acculturative stress, social support, family cohesion and cultural conflict, and depression severity were included in a path analysis predicting SI and SA. Results indicated that, for Asian participants, depression severity (standard estimate = 0.45, p = 0.01) was the only factor significantly associated with 12-month SA. For 12-month SI, both acculturative stress (stand. est. = -0.25, p = 0.04) and depression severity (stand. est. = 0.31, p = 0.04) were significantly associated.
The interaction of family cohesion and familial conflict related to culture was associated with 12-month SI in Latino Americans [stand. est. = -0.39, 95% CI (16.15, -6.74)]. Specifically, cultural conflict was most strongly associated with SI at higher levels of family cohesion. For lifetime SI in Latino Americans, acculturative stress served as a predictor (stand. est. = -0.18, p = 0.04) in addition to the interaction of family cohesion and cultural conflict [stand. est. = -0.32, 95% CI (-8.81, -2.36)]. As opposed to the same interaction predicting 12-month SI, higher levels of cultural conflict acted as a protective factor against SI (i.e., was negatively associated with SI) when family cohesion was high. Finally, lifetime SA in Latino Americans was also significantly associated with an interaction between family cohesion and cultural conflict [stand. est. = 0.25, 95% CI (-16.15, -6.74)]. This interaction effect indicated that cultural conflict was most strongly associated with lifetime SA when family cohesion was low.
Our results indicate that family dynamics are more predictive of suicide ideation and attempts in Latino Americans, as compared to their Asian counterparts. In addition, our results suggest that family cultural conflict may serve as either a risk or a protective factor depending on the presence and nature of family cohesion for Latino Americans.
