Date of Award

Spring 6-9-2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology (PhD)

Department

Clinical Psychology

First Advisor/Committee Member

Amy H. Mezulis

Second Advisor/Committee Member

Keyne C. Law

Third Advisor/Committee Member

Francesca Dewalt

Abstract

Substance use and suicidal ideation are prevalent among adolescents. An adolescent’s school environment, such as threatening or violence-related experiences at school, may influence their perceived sense of safety, thus influencing their substance use and potentially increasing suicidal ideation. The current study examined the mediating roles of perceived school safety and substance use (alcohol use, binge alcohol use, cannabis use, and vaping) on the relationship between experienced weapon threat/violence at school and suicidal ideation. Data was used from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey and participants were 13206 adolescents attending high school in the United States. Preliminary analyses indicated significant positive bivariate correlations between study variables and significant differences between race/ethnicity groups. A double mediation analysis was conducted for each substance use variable to assess the conditional indirect effect of experienced weapon threat/violence at school on suicidal ideation through perceived school safety and substance use, and to assess for the conditional indirect effect of experienced weapon threat/violence at school on suicidal ideation through substance use alone. Each indirect and direct pathway was statistically significant, however with small effect sizes, partially supporting the proposed hypotheses. Results suggest that other construct(s), in addition to the ones examined in this study, may influence the pathway from experienced weapon threat/violence at school to suicidal ideation. Clinical implications, study limitations, and future research directs are discussed.

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