Establishing the Validity of a Cultural Assessment of Suicide Risks in Black Adolescents
ABSTRACT Although rates of suicide among Black American youth have increased in recent years, few brief assessment tools have been culturally tailored and validated to better identify suicide risk for this population. The current study addresses this gap by testing the validity and reliability of th...
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Wiley
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Mental Health Science |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/mhs2.104 |
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| author | Samantha Francois Leslie Adams Chavez Phelps |
| author_facet | Samantha Francois Leslie Adams Chavez Phelps |
| author_sort | Samantha Francois |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT Although rates of suicide among Black American youth have increased in recent years, few brief assessment tools have been culturally tailored and validated to better identify suicide risk for this population. The current study addresses this gap by testing the validity and reliability of the Cultural Assessment of Suicide Risk‐short form (CARS‐S) in an online sample of Black American adolescents. Three hundred eighty‐one Black adolescents (Mage = 17.5) completed a 13‐item CARS‐S measure online. Cronbach's alpha and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were computed in Stata v.15 and Mplus v.8.0. The revised CARS‐S scale demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.82). A four‐factor solution retained through exploratory analysis demonstrated the best model fit (χ2 = 46.62, p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.05, 95% CI = 0.01–0.08 CFI = 0.99; TLI = 0.97) compared to other model solutions. Confirmatory analysis supported a four‐factor model with no cross‐loaded items. The four factors were: (1) Family conflict and idioms of distress‐suicidal actions (four items); Social Support (two items); Minority‐specific distress (three items); Idioms of distress‐emotional/somatic and cultural sanctions (four items). Researchers conducting future suicide prevention research focused on Black American adolescents and including the CAR‐S measure should consider the inclusion of items related to family conflict and racism‐related stress to better capture risk. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a446953ad4254f8db7937fd4d174fb1b |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2642-3588 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Mental Health Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-a446953ad4254f8db7937fd4d174fb1b2025-08-20T02:04:49ZengWileyMental Health Science2642-35882025-03-0131n/an/a10.1002/mhs2.104Establishing the Validity of a Cultural Assessment of Suicide Risks in Black AdolescentsSamantha Francois0Leslie Adams1Chavez Phelps2Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology Clark University Worcester Massachusetts USADepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford California USACollege of Education and Human Development Georgia State University Atlanta Georgia USAABSTRACT Although rates of suicide among Black American youth have increased in recent years, few brief assessment tools have been culturally tailored and validated to better identify suicide risk for this population. The current study addresses this gap by testing the validity and reliability of the Cultural Assessment of Suicide Risk‐short form (CARS‐S) in an online sample of Black American adolescents. Three hundred eighty‐one Black adolescents (Mage = 17.5) completed a 13‐item CARS‐S measure online. Cronbach's alpha and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were computed in Stata v.15 and Mplus v.8.0. The revised CARS‐S scale demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.82). A four‐factor solution retained through exploratory analysis demonstrated the best model fit (χ2 = 46.62, p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.05, 95% CI = 0.01–0.08 CFI = 0.99; TLI = 0.97) compared to other model solutions. Confirmatory analysis supported a four‐factor model with no cross‐loaded items. The four factors were: (1) Family conflict and idioms of distress‐suicidal actions (four items); Social Support (two items); Minority‐specific distress (three items); Idioms of distress‐emotional/somatic and cultural sanctions (four items). Researchers conducting future suicide prevention research focused on Black American adolescents and including the CAR‐S measure should consider the inclusion of items related to family conflict and racism‐related stress to better capture risk.https://doi.org/10.1002/mhs2.104 |
| spellingShingle | Samantha Francois Leslie Adams Chavez Phelps Establishing the Validity of a Cultural Assessment of Suicide Risks in Black Adolescents Mental Health Science |
| title | Establishing the Validity of a Cultural Assessment of Suicide Risks in Black Adolescents |
| title_full | Establishing the Validity of a Cultural Assessment of Suicide Risks in Black Adolescents |
| title_fullStr | Establishing the Validity of a Cultural Assessment of Suicide Risks in Black Adolescents |
| title_full_unstemmed | Establishing the Validity of a Cultural Assessment of Suicide Risks in Black Adolescents |
| title_short | Establishing the Validity of a Cultural Assessment of Suicide Risks in Black Adolescents |
| title_sort | establishing the validity of a cultural assessment of suicide risks in black adolescents |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/mhs2.104 |
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