Can 1st Grade Data that Schools Can or Do Routinely Collect Predict Suicide Attempts Among Black Youth?

Suicide rates among Black youth have shown disproportionately increasing trends in recent years. This study examined whether teacher-reported behaviors in early childhood were associated with suicide attempts in young adulthood among Black youth. Participants were drawn from a randomized controlled trial of school-based interventions conducted in an urban Mid-Atlantic school district; intervention status was included as a covariate. Of the original 2311 participants, 1516 identified as Black. Analyses were estimated using full information maximum likelihood (FIML), under a missing-at-random assumption, yielding an analytic sample of 1510 Black youth (51.7% female). First-grade predictors included teacher-rated authority acceptance, attention-concentration, social interaction, and school-recorded absenteeism. Participants self-reported lifetime suicide attempts during follow-ups in young adulthood at ages ~ 20, ~ 21, and ~ 30. Analyses tested associations between early behavioral indicators and suicide attempts, stratified by sex. Among males, the lower the level of teacher-rated social interaction, the greater the odds of suicide attempts (aOR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.01–1.66). Among females, higher attention-concentration problems predicted greater odds of suicide attempts (aOR = 1.14, 95% CI 1.03–1.28). No significant associations were observed for authority acceptance or absenteeism. These findings underscore the potential utility of early school-based screening to identify Black children at elevated risk for suicide attempts later in life.