# Cognitive and Contextual Factors in Suicide Ideation Persistence in Adolescents > **NIH NIH R15** · WESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $51,107 ## Abstract Cognitive and Contextual Factors in Suicide Ideation Persistence in Adolescents. Deaths from suicide continue to be a major public health concern, particularly among youth for whom suicide ranks as the second leading cause of death. Recent suicide ideation is reported by almost 20% of high school students, and the majority of those report persistent ideation of more than one year. If the factors that associate with persistent and remitting suicide ideation can be identified, then resources can be directed to those most at risk, with a likely impact on rates of suicide. Depression, hopelessness, and psychiatric diagnoses have been studied as risk factors for over 50 years, yet they are neither sufficient, nor effective, for understanding suicide risk. It is important to evaluate cognitive and contextual factors for suicide ideation, which are understudied, particularly for rural youth. Cognitive factors that may relate to suicide ideation are defeat, entrapment, grit, and self-efficacy. Contextual factors with potential to make an impact on suicide ideation are socio-economic status, access to lethal means, social support, food and housing security, and access to health care. The parent grant (2R15MH113045-02) aims to fill these knowledge gaps through a 12-month longitudinal study of 225 non- clinical, rural adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 who report a history of suicide ideation. The parent grant proposes that cognitive and contextual factors will differentiate adolescents with and without suicide ideation history in the baseline sample. It is further expected that the cognitive factors defeat and entrapment will associate with persisting suicide ideation, and self-efficacy and grit will associate with remitting suicide ideation at follow-ups. Lastly, it is expected that contextual factors will associate with persisting (low SES and access to lethal means) vs. remitting (social support, food and housing security, access to health care) suicide ideation at follow-ups. This diversity supplement will augment the parent grant by supporting a second-year master’s student trainee who will examine how sexual and gender minority (SGM) status associates with these factors and persistent suicide ideation. Adolescents in 9th-11th grades will be recruited to complete a research protocol of self-report and behavioral measures at their home schools at baseline (n=700); adolescents with suicide ideation history (est. n=225) will be recruited into follow-up assessments at 6- and 12-months post baseline. Teacher reports for the 225 adolescents with suicide ideation history will also be collected. ANOVA will be used to determine how cognitive and contextual factors and suicide ideation history differ for SGM vs. cisgender, heterosexual students. To test hypotheses about factors associating with suicide ideation persistence and remittance and if these associations depend on SGM status, moderation analyses will be used. SGM status will be tested as a moder... ## Key facts - **NIH application ID:** 11046032 - **Project number:** 3R15MH113045-02S1 - **Recipient organization:** WESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY - **Principal Investigator:** Amy Marie Brausch - **Activity code:** R15 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.) - **Funding institute:** NIH - **Fiscal year:** 2024 - **Award amount:** $51,107 - **Award type:** 3 - **Project period:** 2018-08-01 → 2025-04-30 ## Primary source NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11046032 ## Citation > US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11046032, Cognitive and Contextual Factors in Suicide Ideation Persistence in Adolescents (3R15MH113045-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11046032. Licensed CC0. --- *[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*