Results: This randomized controlled trial demonstrated that youth who received SOS student training were approximately 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt in the three months after the training compared to youth who hadn’t been through the SOS program. Exposure to the SOS curriculum resulted in greater knowledge of depression and suicide and more adaptive attitudes toward these problems.
Study Summary: This study is an extension of a clinical trial published in the American Journal of Public Health in March 2004 by Robert H. Aseltine Jr. and Robert DeMartino. This second article adds to their previous evaluation of SOS by including data from the second year of the trial. It sought to assess the short-term impact of the SOS program. Researchers worked with a sample of over 4,000 high school students divided into two groups: the treatment group, who received SOS student training, and the control group, who did not participate in suicide prevention education. Approximately three months after completing SOS training, students in both groups were asked to complete a short questionnaire.
Aseltine, Robert H. Jr, PhD and Robert DeMartino, MD. (2004). “An Outcome Evaluation of the SOS Suicide Prevention Program.” American Journal of Public Health. Vol 94, No 3, 446-51.
Aseltine, Robert H. Jr, Amy James, Elizabeth A. Schilling, and Jaime Glanovsky. (2007) “Evaluating the SOS suicide prevention program: a replication and extension.” BMC Public Health. 7: 161.