# Synthesis of Trials to Prevent Suicide Risk Behavior in Sexual and Gender Minorities

> **NIH NIH R01** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $452,304

## Abstract

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth have annual prevalence rates of suicide attempts of 29%, up
to 4.6 times higher than that of other youth. We propose to test whether prevention programs that target
suicide directly, or a range of factors that increase risk for suicide (internalizing symptoms, alcohol abuse, drug
use, externalizing, bullying and interpersonal violence) reduce suicide risk for youth in general, and whether
SGM youth benefit more or less from such programs. Working with a broad network of prevention trials
researchers, we have received permission to obtain individual-level data from 21 randomized prevention trials
involving 100,851 participants. All trials include direct or surrogate measures of suicide risk, and information
about SGM status. Although all trials have tested and reported intervention impact on specific behavioral
health outcomes, few have tested specific impact on SGM youth, given that such youth make up a relatively
small proportion of the samples in each study. Our work and that of others indicates that combining data
across trials will provide far greater power for testing several key hypotheses about impact on suicide risk, and
whether SGM youth receive differential benefit from these interventions. We will use methods developed in our
prior work to combine these datasets, and utilize findings from two measurement development studies of SGM
and non-SGM youth suicide risk to guide advanced psychometric analyses for harmonizing outcome measures
and developing a common index of suicide risk. We will apply integrative data analysis (IDA) methods that
account for missing data to test three sets of hypotheses.
 Aim 1. Test whether different types of interventions decrease risk for suicidal thought and
behavior among youth in the general population. We hypothesize that preventive programs reduce risk for
suicidality regardless of primary target. We will use IDA to test this hypothesis on 21 trials (n=100,851).
 Aim 2. Test whether preventive effects differ for SGM youth. Given the unique risks often faced by
SGM youth, we hypothesize that prevention programs will reduce risk for suicidality for SGM youth, but will be
less effective compared with other youth. We will test moderation on 5,232 SGM and 95,619 non-SGM youth.
 Aim 3. Test whether preventive effects on SGM youth vary by type of intervention. We
hypothesize that interventions targeting bullying and internalizing symptoms will be more effective in reducing
suicide risk for SGM youth compared with interventions targeting alcohol and drug use and externalizing
behavior. We will use IDA to compare the preventive effects of interventions across trial target behaviors (e.g.,
bullying) and individual factors (e.g., female vs male SGM youth).
 Findings from this study will fill major gaps in our understanding of how current prevention programs
impact suicide risk both generally and in SGM and non-SGM youth, and will provide guidance in directing the
next generati...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10149409
- **Project number:** 5R01MH117598-04
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** C. HENDRICKS BROWN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $452,304
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-06 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10149409

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10149409, Synthesis of Trials to Prevent Suicide Risk Behavior in Sexual and Gender Minorities (5R01MH117598-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10149409. Licensed CC0.

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