Walker directs the"Culture, Risk, and Resilience Lab" at the university. She indicated that her research over the last two decades consistently reveals that important psychological buffers can diffuse potential vulnerability to mental health crisis.
"Our current findings support the clinical utility of mindfulness as a potential buffer to the negative consequences of impulsivity for Black Americans," the researchers report."Suicide among Black Americans is a complex phenomenon that may be best understood via an analysis of risk factors in tandem with protective factors."
While impulsivity is a factor often associated with suicidal risk, few studies have examined the association between impulsivity and suicidal risk, or clinically relevant protective factors, for Black Americans. Similarly, few studies have examined the role of mindfulness in the context of impulsivity and suicidal risk for Black Americans.
For this research, the first of its kind, the UH team examined data from 332 Black emerging adults with an average age of 22 years. Participants completed an online questionnaire battery that included measures of impulsivity, mindfulness, suicide ideation and elevated suicide risk.and elevated suicide risk via lower levels of mindfulness," said Brooks.