Adverse childhood experiences, gender, and suicidality among Florida high school students: Examining intervening mechanisms

BACKGROUND

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) represent a key risk factor for suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adolescents. However, the intervening mechanisms linking ACEs and suicidality, and whether such processes vary by gender, remain underexplored.

OBJECTIVE

The present study examines whether the relationships between ACEs and the likelihood of experiencing suicidal thoughts and attempting suicide are indirect through depressive symptoms and low self-control. This study also investigates whether these direct and indirect paths might be moderated by gender.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

The analyses make use of data on a statewide representative sample of students enrolled in public high schools in Florida (N = 23,078) from the 2022 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS).

METHODS

Generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) was used to estimate the direct and indirect effects of ACEs on the likelihood of suicidal thoughts and attempting suicide. The indirect effects were assessed using bootstrapping, and between-gender differences in the coefficients were tested.

RESULTS

ACEs has direct associations with depressive symptoms, low self-control, and both suicidality outcomes. The effects of ACEs on suicidal thoughts are indirect through both depressive symptoms and low self-control, and the effects of ACEs on suicide attempts are indirect through depressive symptoms. Limited gender differences in these pathways emerge.

CONCLUSIONS

For male and female youth, ACEs are associated with heightened depression symptoms and reduced self-control, and both of these factors partially explain the previously established relationship between ACEs and suicidality.

The intersection of race, ethnicity, and gender and the prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors

The prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors across distinct intersections of race/ethnicity and gender among adolescents remains understudied. The current study seeks to address this important gap in suicide scholarship using a statewide representative sample of U.S. Florida middle school and high school adolescents. Data drawn from the 2022 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS) (N = 41,764) were analyzed to examine disparities in suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts among 26 racial/ethnic and gender subgroups of middle school and high school aged adolescents. Survey-weighted prevalence estimates for both suicidality outcomes were generated, and binary contrasts were used to assess the statistical significance of the differences in the probabilities between members of each subgroup and youth belonging to all other subgroups. Our results indicate that the prevalence of suicidal thoughts and attempts was highly gendered and varied according to racial/ethnic subgroups. Native American girls reported more suicidal thoughts (49.9%) and attempts (16.5%) in the past 12 months than any race/gender group. Other racial/ethnic and gender groups that reported particularly high rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts were West Indian/Caribbean female adolescents (48.8% and 13.4%, respectively), Puerto Rican female adolescents (48.5% and 14.7%, respectively), and Black/non-Hispanic female adolescents (19.9% and 15.6%, respectively). Because certain gender and race/ethnic subgroups are at an increased risk for suicidality, more research is needed to better understand the risk and protective factors to determine which suicide prevention strategies might best serve each group.

Differential Exposure to Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Florida High School Students: The Intersection of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

PURPOSE

The prevalence of exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) across distinct intersections of race/ethnicity and gender among adolescents remains relatively unknown. The current study seeks to address this important gap in the literature using a statewide representative sample of Florida high school students.

METHODS

Data drawn from the 2020 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS) (N = 20,438) were analyzed to examine differences in ACE exposure among 26 racial/ethnic and gender subgroups of high-school aged youth. Lifetime exposure to ACEs was constructed using 10 different ACE categories to measure ACEs prevalence as reported exposure to 1+ ACEs and 4+ ACEs.

RESULTS

Exposure to ACEs was highly gendered and varied according to racial/ethnic subgroup. While notable differences across gender and racial/ethnic groups emerged when measuring prevalence as exposure to 1+ ACEs, several of these disparities were further amplified when prevalence was measured as exposure to 4+ ACEs. Native American female adolescents represented the group at greatest risk of high exposure to ACEs, with more than 50% of such youth reporting exposure to 4+ ACEs.

DISCUSSION

The prevalence of ACE exposure varies significantly across race/ethnic and gender subgroups of youth. These intersections should be considered for prevention efforts and clinical treatments of trauma exposure as ACEs may be linked to certain outcomes or behaviors based on high exposure in certain subpopulations of youth.

The trial tax and the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender, and age in criminal court sentencing

OBJECTIVE

Prior research consistently demonstrates that defendants convicted at trial are sentenced more harshly than those who plead guilty. Additionally, a vast literature has shown that Black and Hispanic defendants, and especially young minority males, are particularly disadvantaged in sentencing, though these effects may be conditional on various legal and case-processing factors. However, it remains unclear how the mode of conviction might moderate these inequalities according to offenders' combined race/ethnicity, gender, and age.

HYPOTHESES

I expected that mode of conviction would moderate the joint effects of race/ethnicity, gender, and age on the imposition of a sentence to prison and on sentence length such that young minority males convicted at trial would receive more severe punishments than members of other subgroups.

METHOD

The analyses made use of data on defendants sentenced for noncapital felony crimes in Florida circuit courts over a 12-year period (N = 1,076,500). Hurdle regression models and marginal effects analysis were used.

RESULTS

Greater sentencing disparities in absolute as well as relative terms between young minority males and other race/ethnicity, gender, and age subgroups were found among trial cases than among plea cases. Further, Black and Hispanic males were subjected to trial taxes that were substantially larger than those of other subgroups.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that defendants who plead guilty are generally sentenced according to predictable and standardized "going rates" of punishment, whereas the enhanced discretion afforded judges in trial cases as well as racialized "bad facts" about defendants that emerge at trial may drive inequalities in punishment. Thus, extralegal sentencing disparities tied to mode of conviction are an area in which criminal justice reform efforts might be directed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Unstructured Socializing with Peers, Low Self-Control, and Substance Use

Research consistently finds that unstructured socializing with peers and low self-control are both positively associated with substance use among adolescents. However, largely absent from the literature is a consideration of whether unstructured socializing with peers and low self-control have differential and interactive effects when predicting usage of different classifications of drugs. The current study addresses these issues using data collected on a statewide sample of middle school and high school students who participated in the 2017 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey. Results indicate that (1) unstructured socializing with peers is a stronger predictor of soft drug use than low self-control, (2) low self-control is a stronger predictor of hard drug use than unstructured socializing with peers, and (3) the effect of unstructured socializing on both soft and hard drug use is diminished among adolescents who are lower in self-control.