Religiosity, lifetime psychiatric disorders and suicidality among black adolescents: Do African americans and Caribbean blacks differ?

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents. Efforts to understand suicide often focus on gender and race differences; however, few studies consider within group ethnic differences, especially among Black adolescents. The current study tested if the associations between religiosity and number of lifetime psychiatric disorders, and lifetime suicidal behaviors vary between African American and Caribbean Black adolescents, using data from the National Survey of American Life Adolescent Survey (NSAL-A) The NSAL-A is a nationally representative household survey of 1,170 African American and Caribbean Black adolescents aged 13 to 17 years. Subjective religiosity was measured using three items. Number of psychiatric disorders was measured using a modified version of the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Lifetime suicidal behaviors were measured based on the presence of suicidal ideation, plan, and attempt. We used Stata 12.0 to fit structural equation models, while taking into account the complex design of the sample. In the pooled sample of Black adolescents, religiosity was not correlated with number of psychiatric disorders or lifetime suicidality. Among Caribbean Black adolescents, higher religiosity was a protective factor against number of lifetime psychiatric disorders and lifetime suicidal behaviors. Religiosity was not, however, significantly associated with number of lifetime psychiatric disorders or lifetime suicidality among African American adolescents. Promotion of religiosity may have important implications for prevention of suicide among Caribbean Black adolescents. Further research is needed to understand how ethnicity and culture shape the effect of religiosity on mental disorders and suicidality among Black adolescents.