Violence and suicide risk behavior in a nationally representative sample of youth aged 12-17: What does it mean to be at-risk?

Abstract

Suicide attempts and school violence, including gun violence, are now leading causes of death in youth 12-17. This study applied a latent class analytic approach to investigate how heterogenous subgroups of youth differed regarding patterns of violence engagement and suicide risk behavior and how geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic predictors related to subgroup membership. Data were drawn from the youth subsample of the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (N = 10,743). A suicide risk subgroup had low probabilities of violence engagement but high probabilities of suicide ideation and plan. A violence + suicide risk subgroup had high probabilities of violence engagement, suicide ideation, and suicide plan. A violence risk subgroup had high probabilities of violence engagement and carrying a handgun, but low probabilities of suicide ideation or plan. The largest subgroup had low probabilities across all class indicators. Demographic, geographic, and socioeconomic variables uniquely predicted subgroup membership.