Breaking the Silence: A Qualitative Analysis of Suicide Risk among Black Adolescents

Suicide among Black adolescents, relative to any other racial or ethnic group, is rising at an accelerated pace, underscoring a pressing public mental health concern. Understanding the underlying causes would benefit from expanding culturally specific frameworks of suicide in Black youth. Because Black youth's perspectives of suicide have been largely neglected, Cultural Consensus Modeling (CCM), a multi-phase, inductive approach, was employed in the present investigation to characterize shared cultural beliefs about suicide in Black adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 years. The purpose of the present study was to specifically present findings from Phase 3 of parent CCM study, which includes in-depth, qualitative interviews. A sample of N = 21 Black youth were interviewed to gather descriptive perspectives of the shared cultural beliefs about factors contributing to suicidal ideation. Thematic analysis of qualitative interviews identified five themes: 1) Internalized Racism and Devaluation, 2) Perceived Pressure to Succeed, 3) Isolation and Exclusion due to Bullying, 4) Stigma and Invalidation of Mental Health Problems in the Black Community, and 5) Hopelessness. By elucidating cultural beliefs of suicide, this work may inform advancements in culturally relevant prevention and intervention efforts to address increasing suicide rates among Black youth.