# Cultural-Social Engagement and Suicideamong Hispanics

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER · 2021 · $181,710

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Suicide rates among Hispanics in the United States have increased in the last two decades; coupled with rapid
growth of the Hispanic population, suicide among Hispanics is a pressing public health issue. Considering the
role of culture in suicide can elucidate unique and modifiable mechanisms for suicide. The Candidate’s long-
term research goal is to optimize suicide prevention interventions for Hispanics by targeting cultural
determinants of health. Reaching that goal requires mentored training in three domains of suicide prevention
research and completion of a research project to produce substantive, foundational results (described below).
First, the candidate needs to gain expertise in randomized clinical trials methodology for suicide interventions
(Objective 1) to conduct a trial with at risk Spanish-speaking adults in a reliable, valid, and ethical manner, and
test target engagement with an experimental therapeutics approach. Second, the candidate needs to gain
expertise in optimizing behavioral interventions to impact cultural determinants of health via human-centered
design (Objective 2) to deliver a treatment protocol that is culturally-usable and optimized to increase cultural-
social engagement. Third, as smartphone technology increases precision to measure mechanisms, the
candidate needs to gain expertise in the use of novel smartphone technology for precise assessment of target
engagement in clinical trials (Objective 3) to optimally/ethically use this technology in clinical trials research.
The principal objective of the proposed research study is to use an experimental therapeutics approach to
examine whether a behavioral intervention (SOCIAL ENGAGE; S-ENGAGE) can increase cultural-social
engagement (intervention target) and decrease suicide risk (clinical outcome) among Hispanic adults.
First, human-centered design approaches will be used to iteratively refine and optimize S-ENGAGE to alter
cultural-social engagement via iterative feedback from 5 Spanish-speaking adults with low cultural-social
engagement and recent ideation. Second, 60 Spanish-speaking adults who report low cultural-social
engagement and recent ideation will be randomized into 10-weeks of S-ENGAGE or an expectancy-matched
control. Participants will provide 2-weeks of real-time data via smartphone at baseline, post-treatment, and 3-
month follow-up and complete semi-structured interviews. Research Aims are to: (1) Optimize S-ENGAGE for
target engagement. (2) Test target engagement: Does S-ENGAGE increase cultural-social engagement
among Spanish-speaking adults?; (3) Test clinical impact: Does S-ENGAGE decrease suicide risk among
Spanish-speaking adults?; (4) To contextualize findings: What components of S-ENGAGE were most helpful?
The resulting findings of this K23 project will function as the basis for a larger R01-funded study powered to
examine whether the proposed target (cultural-social engagement) leads to changes in the clinical outcome
(suicide i...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10301466
- **Project number:** 1K23MH125078-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Caroline Silva
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $181,710
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-08-01 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10301466

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10301466, Cultural-Social Engagement and Suicideamong Hispanics (1K23MH125078-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10301466. Licensed CC0.

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