Elsevier

Journal of Adolescent Health

Volume 31, Issue 3, September 2002, Pages 277-285
Journal of Adolescent Health

International article
Impact of an empowerment-based parent education program on the reduction of youth suicide risk factors

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(02)00384-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of parent education groups on youth suicide risk factors. The potential for informal transmission of intervention impacts within school communities was assessed.

Methods: Parent education groups were offered to volunteers from 14 high schools that were closely matched to 14 comparison schools. The professionally led groups aimed to empower parents to assist one another to improve communication skills and relationships with adolescents. Australian 8th-grade students (aged 14 years) responded to classroom surveys repeated at baseline and after 3 months. Logistic regression was used to test for intervention impacts on adolescent substance use, deliquency, self-harm behavior, and depression. There were no differences between the intervention (n = 305) and comparison (n = 272) samples at baseline on the measures of depression, health behavior, or family relationships.

Results: Students in the intervention schools demonstrated increased maternal care (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.9), reductions in conflict with parents (AOR .5), reduced substance use (AOR .5 to .6), and less delinquency (AOR .2). Parent education group participants were more likely to be sole parents and their children reported higher rates of substance use at baseline. Intervention impacts revealed a dose-response with the largest impacts associated with directly participating parents, but significant impacts were also evident for others in the intervention schools. Where best friend dyads were identified, the best friend’s positive family relationships reduced subsequent substance use among respondents. This and other social contagion processes were posited to explain the transfer of positive impacts beyond the minority of directly participating families.

Conclusions: A whole-school parent education intervention demonstrated promising impacts on a range of risk behaviors and protective factors relevant to youth self-harm and suicide.

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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