Understanding Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Black Youth Within the Child Welfare System

An Exploration of Protective Factors

Arielle Hope Sheftall, Paige N. Picou, Elie Ohana, Gabriel W. Hassler, Beth Ann Griffin, Lynsay Ayer

ResearchPosted on rand.org Nov 3, 2025Published in: Child Abuse & Neglect, Volume 170 (December 2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2025.107764

Background

Child welfare system (CWS)-involved youth are over two times more likely to experience suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) compared to youth without involvement and Black youth are overrepresented in the CWS. Research is needed to determine both risk and protection against STBs for CWS-involved Black youth.

Objective

Examine how social processes confer risk and protection against STBs in CWS-involved Black youth. Participants and setting: Data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) used. Black youth with one+ follow-up of data between 7 and 17 years included (n = 1235).

Methods

STBs, social skills, child loneliness, child maltreatment, and demographics were investigated, imputation was completed for missing data, autoregressive logistic regression model used, and interactions by sex and age were examined. Results: Previous STBs associated with future STBs (OR = 1.87,95 %CI = 1.45-2.40). Higher parent- and teacher-rated social skills were associated with lower odds of STBs (OR = 0.86,95 %CI = 0.77-0.96). Higher levels of child loneliness and social dissatisfaction were associated with higher odds of STBs (OR = 1.12,95 %CI = 1.00-1.25). Finally, significant interactions for age; ages 11-14 (OR = 0.49,95 %CI = 0.34-0.69) and 15-17 (OR = 0.45,95 %CI = 0.24-0.83) lower odds of STBs compared to the 7-10-year age group.

Conclusions

Stronger social skills and lower loneliness may protect against STBs in CWS-involved Black youth. Prevention programs increasing social skills and decreasing loneliness may lead to lower STBs in this vulnerable population.

Read More

Topics

Document Details

  • Copyright: Elsevier Ltd
  • Publisher: Science Direct
  • Availability: Non-RAND
  • Year: 2025
  • Pages: 10
  • Document Number: EP-71140

This publication is part of the RAND external publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.