and Reading Problems Among Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to examine the risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts and school dropout among youth with poor reading in comparison to youth with typical reading (n = 188) recruited from public schools at the age of 15. In a prospective naturalis-tic study, youth and parents participated in repeated research assessments to obtain information about suicide ideation and attempts, psychiatric and sociodemographic variables, and school dropout. Youth with poor reading ability were more likely to experience suici-dal ideation or attempts and more likely to drop out of school than youth with typical reading, even after controlling for sociodemo-graphic and psychiatric variables. Suicidality and school dropout were strongly associated with each other. Prevention efforts should focus on better understanding the relationship between these outcomes, as well as on the developmental paths leading up to these be-haviors among youth with reading difficulties. Adolescents with significantreading problems are at higherrisk for behavioral and emo-tional difficulties than adolescents with typical reading ability (Arnold et al., 2005). Moreover, youth with learn-ing disabilities (LD) have been sug-gested to be at increased risk for suici