Suicidal behavior in African-American adolescents: Racial socialization as a protective factor

The current study examined racial socialization as protective factor against suicidality in African American adolescents. Racial socialization is defined as the process in which parents transmit African American values, perceptions, and attitudes to their children and prepare their children for being African American in a country where the mainstream culture views their racial identity as negative. Previous research and theoretical work have suggested that racial socialization buffers the effects of racism and discrimination and promotes resilient coping. It was hypothesized that general and proactive racial socialization would be negatively related to suicidality and would moderate the relationships between depression, hopeless, and anger and suicidality. The present study employed a correlational design and a community sample, which included 166 African American teens recruited from public high schools in a predominantly African American, economically diverse metropolitan area. General and proactive racial socialization were found to be negatively related to suicidality and positively related to reasons for living. Contrary to predictions, the protective racial socialization (racism awareness) was negatively related to reasons for living and was found to moderate the relationship between depression and hopelessness and reasons for living. The relationship between racial socialization and suicidality had not previously been examined. Implications for research and practice, including designing culturally appropriate suicide prevention efforts for the African American community, are discussed.