Abstract: Higher Childhood Peer Reports of Social Preference Mediates the Impact of the Good Behavior Game on Suicide Attempt (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

Schedule:

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Columbia A/B (Hyatt Regency Washington)

* noted as presenting author

Alison Newcomer, MHS, Research Assistant, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

Kimberly Roth, MHS, Research Associate, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD

Wei Wang, PhD, Associate Professor, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL

Shelley Hart, PhD, Research Associate, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD

Barry Wagner, PhD, Director of Clinical Training, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

Holly C. Wilcox, PhD, Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

PRESENTATION TYPE: Paper

CATEGORY/THEME: Prevention and promotion efforts focused on early childhood

TITLE: Higher Childhood Peer Reports of Social Preference Mediates the Impact of the Good Behavior Game on Suicide Attempt

ABSTRACT BODY:

Introduction: The Good Behavior Game (GBG), a universal classroom-based preventive intervention using group contingent reinforcement to reduce early aggressive, disruptive behavior, is one of the few universal preventive interventions delivered in early elementary school that has been shown to reduce the risk for future suicide attempts. Additionally, a body of well-developed research has consistently demonstrated links between poor peer relations in childhood and later mental health problems. In this study we examine peer social preference as a potential mechanism by which the GBG impacts suicide attempt risk.

Methods: This study draws upon longitudinal data gathered from developmental epidemiologically-based randomized preventive trials conducted by the Johns Hopkins Prevention Research Center’s (PRC) work in Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS), which tested the GBG among a cohort of 2311 first-grade children in 19 public schools and 41 classrooms. Peer social preference was assessed in the spring of 1st grade and 2nd grade by peer nomination using questions from the Peer Assessment Inventory including: “Which children do you like best?” and “Which children don’t you like?” Social preference (difference between “like best” and “don’t like” nominations) scores were calculated and then standardized. Suicide attempts were assessed as part of the affective disorder subscale of the DISC. Discrete-Time Survival Analysis (N=1395) methods estimated the relative odds of social preference on time to first suicide attempt after covariate adjustment for sex, race, free or reduced lunch status, intervention status and cohort. We followed the general mediation framework proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986) and applied the product of coefficients approach to test the significance of the mediation effect.

Results: Results indicated that peer social preference partially mediated the relationship between the GBG and the associated reduction of risk for suicide attempts among children characterized as highly aggressive (95% CI -0.245 and -0.00009). Additionally, higher peer social preference scores significantly predicted lower risk for suicide attempt by adulthood (OR = 0.79, 95% CI [0.66, 0.95], p = 0.010).

Conclusion: These results suggest that positive childhood peer relations may partially explain the GBG-associated reduction of risk for suicide attempts and may be an important and malleable protective factor against the risk for suicide attempt later in life.

Abstract: Higher Childhood Peer Reports of Social Preference Mediates the Impact of the Good Behavior Game on Suicide Attempt (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

195 Higher Childhood Peer Reports of Social Preference Mediates the Impact of the Good Behavior Game on Suicide Attempt