A Scoping Review And Content Analysis of the Empirical Evidence
Report Publish Date: June 3, 2023
The authors of this journal article reviewed past research on whether and how navigating new cultural environments might lead to suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among first generation Asian/Pacific Islander, Latinx, and Black teens in the U.S.
Most articles that the researchers reviewed (19) found that acculturation, or adapting to and navigating cultural environments, may lead to higher risk for suicidal ideation and attempts. A few articles (3) found that acculturation protected teens from suicidal ideation and attempts. A few more articles (5) found no association between acculturation and suicide risk.
The authors say the stresses of acculturation, discrimination, and family dynamics are what lead to suicide risk, not the process of acculturation itself.
The authors found deep limitations in the body of research, and few of the articles looked at how teens’ intersectional identities affected their experiences.
Suicide and suicidal behaviors have been rising among teens of color in the U.S. faster than among White teens. Some studies have suggested that U.S.-born teens of immigrant families have higher rates of suicide and suicidal ideation than teens born abroad who immigrated to the U.S.
The authors wanted to see what the literature to date says about the relationship between suicide risk and the stresses of navigating cultural environments and identities, as well as experiences of discrimination.
The authors used the PRISMA scoping review protocol to search for articles published between January 2005 and March 2022. They wanted to find original, peer reviewed research that focused on 11- to 20-year-olds in the U.S., separated data by race and ethnicity, reported suicidal behaviors rather than self-harm behaviors, and studied the relationship between acculturation and suicidal ideation, planning, attempts, and deaths.
“We highlight critical gaps in the literature and provide recommendations to help guide future research on culturally responsive suicide-prevention strategies.”
—Lillian Polanco‐Roman, Chantel T. Ebrahimi, Katherine S. W. Mafnas, The New School; Carolina Hausmann‐Stabile, Bryn Mawr College; Alan Meca, University of Texas at San Antonio; Silvia L. Mazzula, CUNY; Cristiane S. Duarte and Roberto Lewis‐Fernández, Columbia University
The authors say more research is needed to help us understand how acculturation shapes teens’ risk for having suicidal thoughts, planning suicide, or attempting or completing suicide. “This research is necessary to promote more culturally responsive youth suicide-prevention strategies,” they write.
Purpose Among Asian-American/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latinx, and Black youth, the US born have higher risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (attempts and death-by-suicide) than first-generation migrants. Research has focused on the role of acculturation, defined as the sociocultural and psychological adaptations from navigating multiple cultural environments.
Methods Using content analysis, we conducted a scoping review on acculturation-related experiences and suicide-related risk in Asian-American/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latinx, and Black youth (henceforth described as “ethnoracially minoritized adolescents”), identifying 27 empirical articles in 2005–2022.
Results Findings were mixed: 19 articles found a positive association between acculturation and higher risk for suicide ideation and attempts, namely when assessed as acculturative stress; 3 articles a negative association; and 5 articles no association. Most of the research, however, was cross-sectional, largely focused on Hispanic/Latinx youth, relied on demographic variables or acculturation-related constructs as proxies for acculturation, used single-item assessments for suicide risk, and employed non-random sampling strategies. Although few articles discussed the role of gender, none discussed the intersections of race, sexual orientation, or other social identities on acculturation.
Conclusion Without a more developmental approach and systematic application of an intersectional research framework that accounts for racialized experiences, the mechanisms by which acculturation may influence the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior remain unclear, resulting in a dearth of culturally responsive suicide-prevention strategies among migrant and ethnoracially minoritized youth.
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology (2023) 58:1121–1137 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-023-02494-0
This study and report were conducted and created by the following people.
