Feasibility of screening adolescents for suicide risk in "real-world" high school settings.
OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the feasibility of a population-based approach to preventing adolescent suicide.


METHODS
A total of 1323 students in 10 high schools completed the Suicide Risk Screen. Screening results, student follow-up, staff feedback, and school responses were assessed.


RESULTS
Overall, 29% of the participants were rated as at risk of suicide. As a result of this overwhelming percentage, school staffs chose to discontinue the screening after 2 semesters. In further analyses, about half of the students identified were deemed at high risk on the basis of high levels of depression, suicidal ideation, or suicidal behavior. Priority rankings evidenced good construct validity on correlates such as drug use, hopelessness, and perceived family support.


CONCLUSIONS
A simpler, more specific screening instrument than the Suicide Risk Screen would identify approximately 11% of urban high school youths for assessment, offering high school officials an important opportunity to identify young people at the greatest levels of need and to target scarce health resources. Our experiences from this study show that lack of feasibility testing greatly contributes to the gap between science and practice.
Hallfors
Denise
D
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 1516 E Franklin St, Suite 200, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA. hallfors@pire.org
Brodish
Paul H
PH
Khatapoush
Shereen
S
Sanchez
Victoria
V
Cho
Hyunsan
H
Steckler
Allan
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D000092864:Suicide Prevention