Religiosity, attributional style, and social support as psychosocial buffers for African American and white adolescents' perceived risk for suicide.
Psychosocial buffers were evaluated for their relative contributions to adolescents' perceived risk for suicide. A community sample of African American and White adolescents (N = 1,098) rated the likelihood that they would die by suicide and completed standardized measures of depression, hopelessness, intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, orthodoxy, social support, and causal attributional style. Orthodoxy-commitment to core beliefs-emerged as the single strongest correlate after controlling for the effects of other buffers. The effect of depression on perceived suicide risk was moderated by the adolescent's degree of orthodoxy. Commitment to core, life-saving beliefs may help explain the religion-suicide link for adolescents.
Greening
Leilani
L
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0348, USA. legreeni@gp.as.ua.edu
Stoppelbein
Laura
L
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012306:Risk; D012944:Social Support; D013405:Suicide / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*; D000092864:Suicide Prevention