Suicide Patterns and Association With Predictors Among Rhode Island Public High School Students: A Latent Class Analysis

Abstract

We analyzed Rhode Island's 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data to investigate suicide patterns and their association with suicide risk predictors among public high school students. We used latent class regression analysis of Rhode Island's 2007 YRBS data (from a random sample of 2210 public high school students) to model latent classes of suicide risk and identify predictors of latent class membership. Four latent classes of suicide risk were modeled and predictors were associated with each: class 1 (emotionally healthy, 74%); class 2 (considered and planned suicide, 14%) was associated with being female, having low grades, being gay/lesbian/bisexual/unsure, feeling unsafe at school, having experienced forced sexual intercourse, and self-perceived overweight; class 3 (attempted suicide, 6%) was associated with speaking a language other than English at home, being gay/lesbian/bisexual/unsure, feeling unsafe at school, and forced sexual intercourse; and class 4 (planned and attempted suicide, 6%) was associated with the previously mentioned predictors and with being in 9th or 10th grade and currently smoking. A single model characterized and quantified 4 patterns of suicide risk among adolescents and identified predictors for 3 at-risk classes. Interventions for high-risk youths may help prevent adolescent suicides.