# Suicide Prevention Study

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS · 2020 · $394,108

## Abstract

The role of social determinants is evident in the disproportionately high rates of Alaska Native (AN) youth
suicide that when aggregated across a rural area, can be 18 times higher than the U.S. youth general
population for ages 15-19 (124 vs 6.9/ per 100,000). Despite their importance, little is yet known about the
community-level resilience and protective processes that rural AN communities enact to protect their youth.
Our research seeks to identify the pathways from these larger social and community processes as they
individual, youth resilience from suicide, in order to inform a wide variety of prevention efforts with AN youth.
The proposed study will use a collaborative mixed methods approach to: (a) identify mutable community-level
protective factors that appear to impact youth suicide; (b) test the role of community protective factors and
mechanisms, in a multi-level model of youth suicide resilience; and (c) develop and disseminate a practical
tool to assess and strengthen community-level protection and reduce suicide risk and increase youth
resilience. The Alaska Native Resilience Research Study (ANRRS) has the following specific aims: 1) Assess
the association of a set of modifiable cultural, community and institutional factors (protective community
factors) with suicide, suicidal behaviors (ideation, attempt), and associated adverse outcomes (accidental
death, alcohol-misuse requiring healthcare) in 64 rural and remote Alaska Native villages to identify
community-level factors that are most predictive of youth health outcomes; 2) In a stratified random sample of
six communities use quantitative methods to test a multi-level model of individual-level youth protective
factors, moderated by a set of community-level factors, as predictors of individual-level youth resilience from
suicide risk outcomes; and 3) develop and disseminate a method—Alaska Community Resilience Mapping
(AK-CRM)—for communities to measure and strategically strengthen these community-level factors to
enhance their protective capabilities to increase youth health and reduce the risk for suicide. To conduct the
proposed suicide prevention study our team will work with our long-term community research partners in the
three Alaska regions with the highest suicide rates: Northwest Arctic, Norton Sound, and Yukon Kuskokwim.
As the research progresses, we will share preliminary results with the Alaska Native Collaborative Hub for
Resilience Research (ANCHRR) to ensure its relevance throughout Alaska and will disseminate the resulting
AK-CRM tool throughout the state. The integration of tribal knowledge and participation in this research will
address local needs while maximizing the study’s public health impact. The goal of this work is to identify vital
community-level targets that can most effectively contribute to the reduction of youth suicide risk and promote
resilience. Our approach will offer a culturally-responsive method for community members to document and
bolste...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9929041
- **Project number:** 5U19MH113138-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS
- **Principal Investigator:** Lisa M. Wexler
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $394,108
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9929041

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9929041, Suicide Prevention Study (5U19MH113138-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9929041. Licensed CC0.

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