Linking Racial Disparities in School Discipline to Black Children’s Suicidality

The suicide rate is about two times higher for Black children ages 5-12 than White children of the same age group. Identifying factors that disproportionately impact young Black children and contribute to their high rates of suicide and suicidality (i.e., ideation, planning, attempt) represents a critical gap in the field. Racial disparities in school discipline practices that are due to racial biases (i.e., racialized discipline) have been seen throughout the literature. Black children in elementary school are two to three times more likely to be suspended or receive an office discipline referral compared to White children for the same behaviors. Despite robust evidence demonstrating the negative psychological impact of Black children’s experiences of discrimination, the association between racialized discipline and young Black children’s suicidal ideation and behavior has not been established. The R21 proposal, which was submitted to the National Institute of Mental Health, seeks to test 1) whether higher rates of racialized discipline predict Black children’s suicidality, 2) whether the proposed association between racialized discipline and Black children’s suicidality is moderated by child emotion regulation and neurocognitive functioning, and 3) whether racial socialization—a cultural parenting strategy—protects against childhood suicidality. These aims will be addressed via a two-wave prospective study of 200 Black children ages 8-10, their primary caregivers, and their teachers, recruited through a Georgetown University Hospital program providing school-based mental health treatment in the southeast DC corridor. Racialized discipline will be assessed via a novel teacher daily diary approach and triangulated with standard measures, including disparities in office discipline referrals and children’s perceived teacher and school discipline inequity. Children’s suicidal thoughts and behaviors will be assessed via a gold standard semi-structured interview. Children will also complete computerized neurocognitive functioning tasks and an observed emotion regulation task. Parents will report their preparation for bias and cultural socialization messages. Data will be analyzed using multilevel structural equation modeling. The primary goals of the proposed MPRC pilot study are to 1) pilot the collection, coding, and scoring of the novel daily diary racialized discipline measure with feedback from teachers, 2) test the feasibility of the proposed R21 recruitment strategy, and 3) assess preliminary descriptive statistics and associations. This study has the potential to inform school-based policy to address racial bias in schools and culturally relevant, targeted intervention programs for Black families with the goal of decreasing suicidal thoughts and behavior in Black children.