title: US cultural involvement and its association with suicidal behavior among youths in the Dominican Republic.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined how US cultural involvement related to suicide attempts among youths in the Dominican Republic.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of youths attending high school in the Dominican Republic (n = 8446). The outcome of interest was a suicide attempt during the past year. The US cultural involvement indicators included time spent living in the United States, number of friends who had lived in the United States, English proficiency, and use of US electronic media and language.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Time lived in the United States, US electronic media and language, and number of friends who had lived in the United States had robust positive relationships with suicide attempts among youths residing in the Dominican Republic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results are consistent with previous research that found increased risk for suicide or suicide attempts among Latino youths with greater US cultural involvement. Our study adds to this research by finding similar results in a nonimmigrant Latin American sample. Our results also indicate that suicide attempts are a major public health problem among youths in the Dominican Republic.
authors.affiliation: George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St Louis, MO 63130, USA. jpena@wustl.edu
authors.forename: Juan B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Peña
authors.forename: Luis H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Zayas
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cabrera-Nguyen
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Vega
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004293:Dominican Republic / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D012574:Schools; D059020:Suicidal Ideation; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013690:Television; D014481:United States