International articleImpact of an empowerment-based parent education program on the reduction of youth suicide risk factors
Section snippets
Procedures
The authors were contracted as external evaluators and did not participate in program delivery, which was managed by Parenting Australia in Melbourne. This study aimed to examine the effect of the program on school students and represented one component within a broader set of evaluation activities. Ethical approval was provided through the University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee and the relevant education sector ethics committees in each state.
Site recruitment activities were
Prediction of suicidal behavior
At T1, 12% (95% Confidence Interval [CI], 9–15) of respondents reported they had engaged in self-harm and experienced suicidal thoughts. Suicidal behavior was associated with a number of individual and family variables. At the family level, prevalence was linearly associated with student reports of parent-adolescent conflict, and both maternal and paternal care. For adolescents reporting “0 to 1” negatively resolved conflicts in the previous month, suicidal behavior was very low (3%: CI, 0–6).
Discussion
The present study is the first evaluation reported of a preventive intervention using parenting education in high schools to reduce risk factors for youth suicide. Cross-sectional analyses confirmed previous research associating youth suicidal behavior with family and individual risk factors 3, 4, 5, 7. The present evaluation extended previous research; firstly, by demonstrating that parent education delivered through high schools can positively affect a number of youth suicide risk factors.
Acknowledgements
This project was funded by the Australian National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy through a grant to Parenting Australia at Jesuit Social Services. We wish to acknowledge the work of Ms. Constance Jenkin who coordinated the intervention.
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