New multi-site grant from the National Institute of Mental Health seeks to understand how stress increases risk for suicidal behavior in teens
Old Dominion University scientists and other collaborators were awarded a four-year $3 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the risks that lead to teen suicide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, suicide is the second leading cause of death among children and adolescents ages 13 to 19 and rates continue to rise. In addition to suicide death, the CDC also reports that approximately 19% of high school students think about suicide each year and nine percent will attempt suicide at least once.
Cassie Glenn, Ph.D., assistant professor of Psychology at ODU, Evan Kleiman, Ph.D., assistant professor of Psychology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and Richard Liu, Ph.D., director of Suicide Research, division of child and adolescent Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) are the recipients of the NIMH grant (R01 MH124899; MPIs: Kleiman, Glenn, Liu). The title is "Clarifying proximal mechanisms linking interpersonal stressors to suicidal behavior in youth: A multi-informant real-time monitoring study"). This multi-site project (ODU in collaboration with Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters, Rutgers, and MGH) will examine how interpersonal stress increases short-term risk for suicidal behavior in teenagers.
"In order to improve youth suicide prevention and treatment, research is needed to understand factors that increase suicide risk for teens," said Glenn. "One important risk factor to examine is interpersonal stress (such as relationship break-ups, arguments with family members, bullying), which has been linked to risk for suicidal behavior across the lifespan. However, far less is known about these associations in teens."
The current 4-year grant, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, will significantly extend prior research by examining how interpersonal stress (family and peer stress) increases risk for suicidal behavior among high-risk teens. Researchers are recruiting 600 teens and their parents from three diverse sites (ODU in collaboration with CHKD, Rutgers, and MGH) following discharge from acute psychiatric care for suicide risk.
"This study will utilize advances in technology—a combination of smartphone-based survey application and wrist worn sensors (like a Fitbit)—to track interpersonal stress, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and mechanisms linking stress to suicide," said Glenn. During the study, information will be provided by teens and their parents for one month. This research will significantly advance understanding of short-term risk for suicidal behavior in youth and how the field assesses and treats teens at risk for suicide.