Race-related stress, dissociation symptoms, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors in a community sample of Black Americans.

Abstract

Objective: Suicide rates for Black Americans continue to increase, pointing to the need for additional research on potential risk factors for suicidal ideation and attempts in this population. While race-related stress and dissociation symptoms are consistently associated with suicidal ideation and attempts, the indirect effect of race-related stress on current suicidal ideation and lifetime attempts through dissociation symptoms has not yet been examined in a community sample of trauma-exposed Black Americans.

Method: Participants (N = 1,121; 92.1% female, M_age = 38.93, SD_age = 13.25) recruited from a public health care system and community advertisements completed cross-sectional self-report questionnaires that assessed past-month race-related stress, past-month dissociation symptoms, past-month suicidal ideation, and lifetime history of a suicide attempt.

Results: Two simple mediation analyses were conducted in MPlus to investigate the indirect effect of race-related stress on past-month suicidal ideation severity and lifetime suicide attempt history through dissociation symptoms. Cumulative trauma load and age were entered into the model as covariates. Past-month race-related stress was indirectly related to past-month suicidal ideation severity (β = 0.05, standard error = 0.02, 95% confidence interval [0.02, 0.09], p = .02) and lifetime suicide attempt history (β = 0.05, standard error = 0.02, 95% confidence interval [0.02, 0.09], p = .01) through past-month dissociation symptoms, while controlling for cumulative trauma load and age.

Conclusion: Findings suggest race-related stress and dissociation symptoms are critical to consider when determining risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors among Black Americans in underserved communities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).