Suicides happen all the time. Everywhere in the world, among almost every age group or social status, people kill themselves pretty frequently. But what happens before someone commits suicide? What is one constant variable when dealing with suicidal people? They think about it. It sounds simple enough, but thinking about or even planning suicide is a key component that comes before the suicide itself, and this is called suicidality. Dr. Marcus Ynalvez, Director of Sociology and Associate Professor at Texas A&M International University, wants to find out more about suicidality; particularly, about suicidality in Hispanic adolescents. So I asked him about it.

Dr. Ynalvez hails from the Philippines, where he obtained both his Bachelors and Masters Degrees from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. After working as a statistician at the Asian Development Bank in the Philippines, Dr. Ynalvez came to the U.S. to obtain a PhD in Sociology, with an emphasis on sociology of science, at Louisiana State University. Being Filipino and conducting this study in Laredo, Texas puts Dr. Ynalvez in a uniquely relevant position to conduct and understand this research. He is an ethnic minority in this country, making him a relatable figure to the Hispanics whom the research is focusing on, and is currently conducting this research in a town where 95% of the population is Hispanic.

He starts off our interview by showing a real enthusiasm for the study, going on about how, “it’s interesting because its sociology and sociology has something to do with wanting to know what social forces influence something personal like suicide.” He also mentions how the subject matter was first brought to his attention by a graduate student of his who wanted to learn more about suicide. She wanted to know what was driving suicidality amongst Hispanic adolescents (around the ages of 10-16). This peaked Dr. Ynalvez’s interest and laid the foundation for the beginning of this project. Now, it’s important to emphasize that they are dealing with suicidality in this study, not suicide. Suicidality, the thinking or planning of suicide, is fundamentally different from actually going through with killing yourself. As a matter of fact, from what he has found in early stages of research, suicidality and actual suicide rates don’t correlate nearly as much as you would think.

What preliminary findings are showing is that there are social groups and structures that are influencing suicidality in Hispanic adolescents. Among the most prominent are the interaction with peers. “What we found out was suicidality was more or less influenced by peer integration, meaning hanging out with peers, spending time with peers after school or on weekends,” he tells me with a glowing sense of intrigue that’s contagious. Unsurprisingly, family also has a lot of influence on suicidality in Hispanics. A positive family setting and spending time within that setting has a positive effect on these adolescents, reducing suicidality. Religion is something that has shown to have major impacts on suicidality in other cultures, but interestingly doesn’t seem have much of an influence in a Hispanic one. I ask him why he thinks this is, and he tells me that “in contemporary society it has ceased to be sacred and meaningful.” He maintains that it has become mundane and marginalized in today’s youth, partly because churches or religious administrations are not internalizing teachings enough. Another reason he gives is that having a once a week experience (church service, etc.) is just not nearly as impactful compared to something like seeing peers every day at school.

What is increasingly impactful in terms of determining suicidality, he reiterates, are peer interactions. “When talking about suicidality, it is really important whom you hang out with. Peers can be a negative force and peers can be a positive force, but in adolescent Hispanics they play more as a negative force, meaning encouraging suicidality. They don’t help. The way we see it, Hispanic kids think about killing themselves and they tell their problems to their peers, but the peers don’t help”, he explains to me. He tells me how most of the time when Hispanic peers try to help in these situations, it can often lead to engaging in activities that actually worsen suicidality. Dr. Ynelvez expresses some concern when explaining peers’ increasingly large negative effect on Hispanic adolescent suicidality, as compared to a positive family effect. Family is a strong influence, but peers can be even stronger with how much time adolescents spend at school, plus hangouts after school and on weekends. Peers tend to be immature and unsure of how to handle these particular issues, which is not a surprise. How mature can you be at 12, or even 16?

The end-game of this research is to eventually provide a better understanding of suicidality among different types of cultures and populations, which in turn can hopefully help identify what exactly leads to the transition into suicide. The study is still in early stages right now, and Dr. Ynalvez hopes to publish locally before expanding the study on a national and even global scale. He is conducting this study for TAMIU at the moment with aims for government funding upon future expansion of the research.