Research shows that strengthening social, cultural, and emotional support can reduce suicide risk, many recent prevention efforts focus on these strategies. Yet, to reinforce and to extend the positive impact of these strategies for suicide risk reduction, we argue it is useful to identify baseline levels and other features of already-existing support. Toward this end, we describe the types (i.e., category), quantities (i.e., distribution and average number), sources (i.e., from whom), and frequencies (i.e., how often) of social support that AN young people report receiving, and we examine if these "support profiles" differ by age and sex. We use survey data from 165 ANs under age 30, collected as part of a participatory intervention study focused on Promoting Community Conversations About Research to End Suicide (PC CARES).
We find that: 1) most Alaska Native youth aged 15-29 reported receiving nearly all supports, 2) compared with females, males reported receiving fewer supports on average, 3) When asked about "everyday" support received (“Someone helped me talk about how I was feeling”) and support in times of stress (“When I was down, someone reached out to me”) in the past few months, youth most commonly said it was family offering them these types of support, followed by close friends and service providers, and 4) family (e.g., parents, siblings, and grandparents) provided support regularly (i.e., monthly or more). Though our findings may suggest fruitful avenues for interventions targeted toward AN males, we discuss these findings in relation to the gendered nature of suicide prevention and assessment.
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Citation:
Markowski, K. L., White, L., Harcey, S. R., Schmidt, T., McEachern, D., Habecker, P., & Wexler, L. (2022). What Kinds of Support are Alaska Native Youth and Young Adults Reporting? An Examination of Types, Quantities, Sources, and Frequencies of Support. Health Promotion Practice, 15248399221115065. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399221115065