Attitudes toward suicide and mental illness in African American churches.

Suicide is a major public health concern that cuts across all racial and ethnic boundaries. Historically, African Americans have been one of the racial groups with very low suicide rates; however, suicide rates among African Americans have disproportionately increased (Joe & Kaplan, 2001). Public health experts are now turning to the faith community for help improving general health screenings, assessments, and health care planning (Koenig, 2003) and these efforts should be extended to suicide and mental health. Before these efforts can be put into place, researchers should first have a better understanding of the norms, values, beliefs, and attitudes of African American churchgoers. The present study investigated attitudes towards suicide and mental illness among 190 African Americans (18-90 years old) from Protestant churches in southeast Michigan. A list of churches was compiled meeting study inclusion criteria (church pastor was African American and at least 50% of the congregation was African American). Churches were stratified by location and denomination and then 10 were randomly selected to participate. Once selected, the pastor of each church was interviewed. Next, members of each church congregation completed measures of religiosity, knowledge of and attitudes towards suicide and mental illness, and a demographic questionnaire after a designated church service. The primary study aims were (1) to investigate relationships between religiosity, knowledge about suicide, and attitudes toward suicide among African American church members and (2) to examine the relationship between pastoral attitudes toward suicide and church members' attitudes toward suicide. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) and qualitative analyses were used to test hypotheses under these aims. Results revealed that employment experience moderated the relationship between religiosity and attitudes toward suicide; however, religiosity and knowledge were not independent predictors of attitudes toward suicide. Exploratory analyses revealed that knowledge about suicide, knowledge about mental illness, and church membership predicted attitudes toward mental illness. Results from this study add to our understanding of attitudes toward suicide and mental illness among African American pastors and churchgoers, providing vital implications for collaboration with Black churches on future suicide and mental health prevention efforts.PhDBlack studiesClinical psychologyHealth and Environmental SciencesOphthalmologyPsychologySocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/126930/2/3287544.pd