Suicidal Behaviors Among Dominican Youth
In collaboration with the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, the Secretary of State of Education, the Familia Sana Foundation and other collaborators, Dr. Juan Pena and his team have completed a study to understand socio-cultural factors related to suicidal behaviors among Dominican Republic youth and how they compare to their Dominican counterparts in NYC. The sample for the study includes a nationally representative sample of Dominican youth attending public secondary schools (grades 9 to 12) across the D.R.
An R03 grant has been recently approved for funding by the National Institute of Mental Health which will allow a follow-up study of a national sample in the D.R. and a representative sample of Dominican youth attending NYC public high schools to compare suicide attempts, suicide ideation, and related risk behaviors in both groups. The new funding will permit a comparison of youth in the Dominican Republic who participated in the 2009 study to those youth who will be surveyed in 2011 through the NIMH grant.