Friendships and Suicidality Among Mexican American Adolescent Girls and Boys

• Published in: Death studies 2010-08, Vol.34 (7), p.641-660
• Main Authors: Winterrowd, Erin, Canetto, Silvia Sara, Chavez, Ernest L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior - psychology; Adolescents; Adult; At Risk Persons; At Risk Students; Conflict (Psychology); Delinquency; Educational Status; Ethnicity; Female; Females; Friends - psychology; Friendship; Gender Differences; Health technology assessment; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Juvenile Delinquency - psychology; Juvenile Delinquency - statistics & numerical data; Male; Males; Mexican Americans; Mexican Americans - psychology; Mexican Americans - statistics & numerical data; Peer Influence; Psychological Patterns; Questionnaires; Racial Differences; Risk Factors; Sex Distribution; Sex roles; Social Isolation; Social Isolation - psychology; Southwestern United States; Studies; Suicidal Ideation; Suicide; Suicide - psychology; Suicide - statistics & numerical data; Suicides & suicide attempts; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teenagers; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0748-1187; 1091-7683
• DOI: 10.1080/07481181003765527

Friendship factors have been implicated in adolescent suicidality, but this relationship has not been verified across ethnicities. This study examined suicidality and friendship problems (i.e., social isolation, poor friendship quality, friends' school disconnection, and friends' delinquency) among Mexican American adolescents, an understudied, vulnerable group in terms of suicidality. Three hundred thirty-eight community adolescents, two-thirds of whom were educationally at-risk, participated in the study. Suicidal ideation and behavior rates were high, particularly among girls. Friends' school disconnectedness increased girls' odds for suicidal ideation by 13%. This association was even greater for girls in good academic standing. Friendship problems were not associated with suicidality in boys. Ethnic identity was a minor factor in suicidal ideation, and only for girls. These findings confirm, among Mexican American adolescents, the role of gender in the relationship between friendship and suicidality.