Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Suicidal behaviours in adolescents in Nova Scotia, Canada: protective associations with measures of social capital

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Few studies of adolescent suicidality have examined its associations with social capital. We explored associations of measures of individual level social capital with self-reported suicide ideation and suicide attempt in adolescents in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, controlling for other factors known to be associated with adolescent suicidality.

Methods

We surveyed 1,597 grade 10–12 students at three high schools in 2006 using self-completion questionnaires. Both sexes were combined for analysis. Outcome measures were suicidal ideation and attempt in the previous year. Measures of social capital included perceptions of trustworthiness and helpfulness of others at school, frequency of religious attendance and participation in extracurricular activities. Logistic regressions were carried out to determine associations of social capital with suicidality while controlling for other factors.

Results

Perceived trustworthiness and helpfulness were protective for suicidal ideation and suicide attempt in the previous year. In adjusted analyses, there were interactions of gender and social capital—females reporting more social capital were more protected from suicide attempt relative to males with similar levels of social capital.

Conclusions

This study provides initial evidence of protective associations of individual level social capital with adolescent suicidality. Our findings suggest that among adolescents low social capital as measured by perceptions of trust and helpfulness of others at school may be a warning sign for suicidality, particularly for females. It may be helpful to inquire of young people how they perceive the trustworthiness and helpfulness of their school environment as a measure of how supportive that environment might be to them when they are facing challenges to their mental health.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Reif CJ, Elster AB (1998) Adolescent preventive services. Primary Care 25:1–21

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Arnett JJ (1999) Adolescent storm and stress, reconsidered. Am Psychol 54:317–326

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Everall RD, Bostik KE, Paulson BL (2005) I’m sick of being me: developmental themes in a suicidal adolescent. Adolescence 40:693–708

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Mulye TP, Jane Park M, Nelson CD, Adams SH, Irwin CE, Brindis CD (2009) Trends in adolescent and young adult health in the United States. J Adolescent Health 45:8–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Statistics Canada. Ten leading causes of death by selected age group, Canada—15 to 24 years. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/84-215-x/2010000/tbl/t003-eng.htm. Accessed 28 Nov 2010

  6. Herrell R, Goldberg J, True WR, Ramakrishnan V, Lyons M, Eisen MT et al (1999) Sexual orientation and suicidality. A co-twin control study in adult men. Arch Gen Psychiatry 56:867–874

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Beautrais AL (2000) Risk factors for suicide and attempted suicide among young people. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 34:420–436

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Satyanarayana S, Enns MW, Cox BJ, Sareen J (2009) Prevalence and correlates of chronic depression in the Canadian community health survey. Can J Psychiatry 54:389–398

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Richardson A, Bergen H, Martin G, Roeger L, Allison S (2005) Perceived academic performance as an indicator of risk of attempted suicide in young adolescents. J Adolesc 28:75–87

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Fleming TM, Merry SN, Robinson EM, Denny SJ, Watson PD (2007) Self-reported suicide attempts and associated risk of protective factors among secondary school students in New Zealand. Aust NZ J Psychiatry 41:213–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Dew RE, Daniel SS, Armstrong TD, Goldston DB, Triplett MF, Koenig HG (2008) Religion/spirituality and adolescent psychiatric symptoms: a review. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 39:381–398

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Remafedi G, French S, Story M, Resnick MD, Blum R (1998) The relationship between suicide risk and sexual orientation: results of a population based study. Am J Public Health 88:57–60

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Garofalo R, Wolf RC, Kessel S, Palfrey J, DuRant RH (1998) The association between health risk behaviors and sexual orientation among a school-based sample of adolescents. Pediatrics 101:895–902

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Russell ST, Joyner K (2001) Adolescent sexual orientation and suicide risk: evidence from a national study. Am J Public Health 91:1276–1281

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Taliaferro LA, Borowsy IW (2011) Perspective—Physician education: a promising strategy to prevent adolescent suicide. Acad Med. doi:10.1097/ACM.0b013e31820984ad

  16. Putnam RD (2000) Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster, New York

    Google Scholar 

  17. Bartkowski JP, Xu X (2007) Religiosity and teen drug use reconsidered; a social capital perspective. Am J Prev Med 32:S182–S194

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Theall KP, DeJong W, Scribner R, Mason K, Schneider SK, Simonsen N (2009) Social capital in the college setting; the impact of participation in campus activities on drinking and alcohol-related harms. J Am Coll Health 58:15–23

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Strawbridge WJ, Shema SJ, Cohen RD, Kaplan GA (2001) Religious attendance increases survival by improving and maintaining good health behaviours, mental health and social relationships. Ann Behav Med 23:68–74

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Abbott S, Freeth D (2008) Social capital and health: starting to make sense of the role of generalized trust and reciprocity. J Health Psych 13:874–893

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Mignone J, O’Neil L (2005) Social capital and youth suicide risk factors in First Nations communities. Can J Public Health 96(Suppl 1):S51–S54

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Whitley R, McKenzie K (2005) Social capital and psychiatry: review of the literature. Harv Rev Psychiatry 13:71–84

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Lundborg P (2005) Social capital and substance use among Swedish adolescents—an explorative study. Soc Sci Med 61:1151–1158

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Winstanley EL, Steinwachs DM, Ensminger ME, Latkin CA, Stitzer ML, Olsen Y (2008) The association of self-reported neighborhood disorganization and social capital with adolescent alcohol and drug use, dependence, and access to treatment. Drug Alcohol Depend 92:173–182

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Crosby RA, Holtgrave DR, DiClemente RJ, Wingood GM, Gayle JA (2003) Social capital as a predictor of adolescentsʼ sexual risk behavior: a state-level exploratory study. AIDS Behav 7:245–252

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Morgan A, Haglund BJA (2009) Social capital does matter for adolescent health: evidence from the English HBSC study. Health Prom Int 24:363–372

    Google Scholar 

  27. Meltzer H, Vostanis P, Goodman R, Ford T (2007) Children’s perceptions of neighbourhood trustworthiness and safety and their mental health. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 48:1208–1213

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Fujiwara T, Kawachi I (2008) A prospective study of individual-level social capital and major depression in the United States. J Epidemiol Commun Health 62:627–633

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Kelly BD, Davoren M, Mhaoláin AN, Breen EG, Casey P (2009) Social capital and suicide in 11 European countries: an ecological analysis. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 44:971–977

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Romans S, Cohen M, Forte T (2010) Rates of depression and anxiety in urban and rural Canada. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. doi:10.1007/s00127-010-0222-2

  31. Patel V (2010) Building social capital and improving mental health care to prevent suicide. Int J Epidemiol 39:1411–1412

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Statistics Canada Canadian Community Profiles. http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/prof/92-591/index.cfm Accessed 6 July 2010

  33. Langille D (2006) A consultation process to develop a survey instrument to assess adolescent health in Nova Scotia. Report to the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation. Dalhousie University, Halifax

    Google Scholar 

  34. Roberts RE, Lweinsohn PM, Seely JR (1991) Screening for adolescent depression: a comparison of depression scales. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 30:58–66

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. McCreary Centre Society (2004) Adolescent Health Survey III. ISBN: 1-895438-55-1

  36. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1997) Youth Risk Behavior Survey

  37. DeSilva MJ, McKenzie K, Harpham T, Huttly SR (2005) Social capital and mental illness: a systematic review. J Epidemiol Commun Health 59:619–627

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Kawachi I, Berkman L (2000) Social cohesion, social capital, and health. In: Berkman L, Kawachi I, (eds) Social epidemiology. Oxford, New York, pp 174–170

  39. SPSS for Windows (2008) Rel. 17.0.1. SPSS Inc, Chicago

  40. Langille DB (2002) Adolescents and health-related services: preliminary report on the 2000 student health survey. Dalhousie University, Halifax

    Google Scholar 

  41. Eaton DK, Kann L, Kinchen S, Shanklin S, Ross J, Hawkins J et al (2007) Youth risk behaviour surveillance—United States, 2007. Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Surveill Summ 57:1–131

    Google Scholar 

  42. Kawachi I, Berkman L (2001) Social ties and mental health. J Urban Health 78:458–467

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Stafford M, Cummins S, Macintyre S, Ellaway A, Marmot M (2005) Gender differences in the associations between health and neighbourhood environment. Soc Sci Med 60:1681–1692

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Almgren G, Magarati M, Mogford L (2009) Examining the influences of gender, race, ethnicity and social capital on the subjective health of adolescents. J Adolescence 32:109–133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Putnam RD, Campbell DE (2010) American grace: how religion divides and unites us. Simon & Schuster, New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Funding for this study was provided by the Nova Scotia Research Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of health Research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, 5849 University Avenue, Halifax, NS, B3H 3H7, Canada

    Donald B. Langille, Mark Asbridge, Steve Kisely & Daniel Rasic

  2. Health LinQ, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    Steve Kisely

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Daniel Rasic

Authors
  1. Donald B. Langille
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mark Asbridge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Steve Kisely
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Daniel Rasic
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donald B. Langille.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Langille, D.B., Asbridge, M., Kisely, S. et al. Suicidal behaviours in adolescents in Nova Scotia, Canada: protective associations with measures of social capital. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 47, 1549–1555 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-011-0461-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-011-0461-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation