Feasibility of Screening Adolescents for Suicide Risk in "Real-World" High School Settings

We evaluated the feasibility of a population-based approach to preventing adolescent suicide. A total of 1323 students in 10 high schools completed the Suicide Risk Screen. Screening results, student follow-up, staff feedback, and school responses were assessed. Overall, 29% of the participants were...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of public health (1971) 2006-02, Vol.96 (2), p.282-287
Main Authors: Hallfors, Denise, Brodish, Paul H, Khatapoush, Shereen, Sanchez, Victoria, Cho, Hyunsan, Steckler, Allan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Children & youth
Feasibility Studies
Female
Humans
Interviews as Topic
Male
Mass Screening - methods
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Public health
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Risk Reduction Behavior
Scaling up Promising Interventions
Secondary schools
Suicide
Suicide - prevention & control
Suicides & suicide attempts
Surveys and Questionnaires
Teenagers
United States
Young adults
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Summary:We evaluated the feasibility of a population-based approach to preventing adolescent suicide. A total of 1323 students in 10 high schools completed the Suicide Risk Screen. Screening results, student follow-up, staff feedback, and school responses were assessed. Overall, 29% of the participants were rated as at risk of suicide. As a result of this overwhelming percentage, school staffs chose to discontinue the screening after 2 semesters. In further analyses, about half of the students identified were deemed at high risk on the basis of high levels of depression, suicidal ideation, or suicidal behavior. Priority rankings evidenced good construct validity on correlates such as drug use, hopelessness, and perceived family support. A simpler, more specific screening instrument than the Suicide Risk Screen would identify approximately 11% of urban high school youths for assessment, offering high school officials an important opportunity to identify young people at the greatest levels of need and to target scarce health resources. Our experiences from this study show that lack of feasibility testing greatly contributes to the gap between science and practice.
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/AJPH.2004.057281