This dissertation research will use secondary data from the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse to investigate 1) rates, types, and intensity of mental health service use among adolescents with recent suicidal ideation or attempt, 2) factors associated with mental health service use in the sub-sample of recently suicidal adolescents (N=2,386), and 3) independent and interactive associations of suicidality with mental health service use in all adolescents (N=19,430). The study will use as its conceptual framework the behavioral model of health care utilization, which posits that predisposing characteristics (such as race and gender) and enabling factors (such as income and health insurance) predict service use along with need for services. The study hypothesizes that, in the subsample of recently suicidal youth, significant differences exist in mental health service use according to race, gender, income, and other factors generally unrelated to need for care, but that psychiatric symptoms, substance use diagnoses, and degree of suicidality most strongly relate to service use. Further, in analyses measuring mental health service use among all youth, it is hypothesized that suicidality independently and interactively with other indicators of need (e.g., psychiatric symptoms) is associated with increased likelihood of service use. Because research indicates the majority of suicidal youth forego professional help, testing of these hypotheses will provide critical information for efforts to increase service use and prevent suicide.
| Freedenthal, Stacey (2007) Racial disparities in mental health service use by adolescents who thought about or attempted suicide. Suicide Life Threat Behav 37:22-34 |
