Fostering a sense of neighborhood belonging in Hispanic adults may help combat suicidal thoughts

In an article published last month in the Archives of Suicide Research, authors Silva et al. note that rates of suicide in middle-aged Hispanic adults have increased, particularly among women. Yet there has been little research examining the cultural and social factors connected with suicide in Hispanics, the largest miniority group in the US. In their study, Silva et al. specifically “explore the demographic and social factors associated with neighborhood belonging among a community sample of Hispanic adults and further examine the relationship between neighborhood belonging and thoughts of death.” The sample they used was made up of 968 Hispanic adults from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS): Survey of Minority Groups [Chicago and New York City], 1995-1996 (ICPSR 2856). (The full sample of 1,306 participants is made up of African Americans, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans in New York, and Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Chicago.) Part of the MIDUS series of studies, the MIDUS Survey of Minority Groups asked an array of questions designed to assess the well-being of middle-aged, urban, ethnic minority adults living in both hyper-segregated neighborhoods and in areas with lower concentrations of minorities. In their analysis of the responses from the Hispanic adults in the sample, Silva et al. assessed measures of acculturative stress, community integration and engagement, religiosity, ethnic cohesion, neighborhood belonging, and depression and thoughts of death. They found that, “integration, engagement, and religiosity positively predicted belonging in Hispanic adults, and “lifetime events of discrimination was the only negative predictor of neighborhood belonging.” Importantly, “lower neighborhood belonging was associated with thoughts of death among depressed participants.” Given the importance of neighborhood belonging to ward off thoughts of death, Silva et al. suggest that suicide prevention programs focus on community engagement, which seems to be associated with neighborhood belonging “regardless of generational status or neighborhood ethnic concentration.”