title: Higher Childhood Peer Reports of Social Preference Mediates the Impact of the Good Behavior Game on Suicide Attempt.
abstract: The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a universal classroom-based preventive intervention directed at reducing early aggressive, disruptive behavior and improving children's social adaptation into the classroom. The GBG is one of the few universal preventive interventions delivered in early elementary school that has been shown to reduce the risk for future suicide attempts. This paper addresses one potential mechanism by which the GBG lowers the risk of later suicide attempt. In this study, we tested whether the GBG, by facilitating social adaptation into the classroom early on, including the level of social preference by classmates, thereby lowers future risk of suicide attempts. The measure of social adaptation is based on first and second grade peer reports of social preference ("which children do you like best?"; "which children don't you like?"). As part of the hypothesized meditational model, we examined the longitudinal association between childhood peer social preference and the risk of future suicide attempt, which has not previously been examined. Data were from an epidemiologically based randomized prevention trial, which tested the GBG among two consecutive cohorts of first grade children in 19 public schools and 41 classrooms. Results indicated that peer social preference partially mediated the relationship between the GBG and the associated reduction of risk for later suicide attempts by adulthood, specifically among children characterized by their first grade teacher as highly aggressive, disruptive. These results suggest that positive childhood peer relations may partially explain the GBG-associated reduction of risk for suicide attempts and may be an important and malleable protective factor for future suicide attempt.
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 550 N. Broadway Room 921, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA.|Department of Psychology, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA.
authors: Alison R
authors: AR
authors: Newcomer
authors: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Kimberly B
authors: KB
authors: Roth
authors: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Sheppard G
authors: SG
authors: Kellam
authors: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Nicholas S
authors: NS
authors: Ialongo
authors: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Shelley R
authors: SR
authors: Hart
authors: Department of Psychology, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA.
authors: Barry M
authors: BM
authors: Wagner
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 550 N. Broadway Room 921, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA. hwilcox1@jhmi.edu.|Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. hwilcox1@jhmi.edu.
authors: Holly C
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2624-0654
authors: HC
authors: Wilcox
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012574:Schools; D012917:Social Adjustment; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Developmental epidemiology; Good behavior game; Peer relations; Suicide attempt; Universal prevention programs