Global cross-cultural validation of a brief measure for identifying potential suicide risk in 42 countries.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the P4 suicide screener in a multinational sample. The primary goal was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the scale and investigate its convergent validity by analyzing its correlation with depression, anxiety, and substance use. STUDY DESIGN: The study design is a cross-sectional self-report study conducted across 42 countries. METHODS: A cross-sectional, self-report study was conducted in 42 countries, with a total of 82,243 participants included in the final data set. RESULTS: The study provides an overview of suicide ideation rates across 42 countries and confirms the structural validity of the P4 screener. The findings indicated that sexual and gender minority individuals exhibited higher rates of suicidal ideation. The P4 screener showed adequate reliability, convergence, and discriminant validity, and a cutoff score of 1 is recommended to identify individuals at risk of suicidal behavior. CONCLUSIONS: The study supports the reliability and validity of the P4 suicide screener across 42 diverse countries, highlighting the importance of using a cross-cultural suicide risk assessment to standardize the identification of high-risk individuals and tailoring culturally sensitive suicide prevention strategies.

Parental divorce and adolescent drunkenness: role of socioeconomic position, psychological well-being and social support.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the association between parental divorce and adolescent drunkenness in the last 4 weeks and the contribution of socioeconomic position, family structure, social support from family and well-being to this association. METHODS: We obtained data on 3,694 elementary school students from several cities in Slovakia (mean age 14.3, 49.0% males; response rate 93%). Respondents completed questionnaires on how often they had been drunk in the last 4 weeks, whether their parents were divorced, their socioeconomic position (education of parents, family affluence), the composition of the household (one or two parents/step-parents), social support from the family and their own well-being. RESULTS: Parental divorce was found to have an effect on adolescent drunkenness in the last 4 weeks, as well as high socioeconomic position, low social support from the family and high depression/anxiety. The effect of divorce on drunkenness decreased only slightly after adding social support into the model. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that parental divorce has a persistent influence on risk behavior independent of the influence of socioeconomic position and well-being. Parental divorce may increase the likelihood of drunkenness more than other factors such as low parental support and poor socioeconomic position.

Predictors of health-endangering behaviour among Roma and non-Roma adolescents in Slovakia by gender.

BACKGROUND: Roma people are commonly described as having an unhealthy lifestyle-for example, an unhealthy diet, intensive smoking, frequent alcohol consumption and a lack of physical activity. However, data about such health-endangering behaviours among Roma adolescents are scarce and of poor quality. The aim of our study is to assess the occurrence of health-endangering behaviours among Slovak Roma adolescents in comparison to non-Roma adolescents, and to assess the impact of parental education and social desirability on the differences found. METHODS: A cross-sectional study among Roma from separated and segregated settlements in the eastern part of Slovakia (n=330; mean age 14.50 years; interview) and non-Roma adolescents (n=722; mean age 14.86 years; questionnaire) was conducted. The effect of ethnicity and parental education on smoking, drunkenness, drug use and physical activity was analysed separately for boys and girls using logistic regression and adjusted for social desirability. RESULTS: Among girls, Roma adolescents had lower rates of smoking, drunkenness and drug use than non-Roma (ORs from 0.14 to 0.60 compared to non-Roma), but had higher rates of physical inactivity. Among boys, drug use was less frequent among Roma adolescents (OR 0.12, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.46); differences for the other health-endangering behaviours were small and statistically insignificant. The effects of parental education and social desirability were small. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to the scarce evidence, Roma had lower rates of substance abuse, especially among girls. Only physical inactivity rates were higher among Roma girls. A challenge in health promotion among Roma is to maintain their relatively low substance use and to promote physical activity.