‘‘Let me Count the Ways:’’ Fostering Reasons for Living Among Low-Income, Suicidal, African American Women LINDSEY M. WEST,PHD, TELSIE A. DAVIS,PHD, MARTIE P. THOMPSON,PHD, AND NADINE J. KASLOW,PHD, ABPP Protective factors for fostering reasons for living were examined among low-income, suicidal, African American women. Bivariate logistic regressions revealed that higher levels of optimism, spiritual well-being, and family social sup- port predicted reasons for living. Multivariate logistic regressions indicated that spiritual well-being showed unique predictive value for reasons for living. Further, the multivariate model accurately predicted reasons for living 72% of the time. Partial support was found for a cumulative protective model hypothesizing a lin- ear relationship between the number of protective factors endorsed and increased reasons for living. Implications for community-based preventive and recovery-ori- ented intervention efforts and future research are discussed. The most recent national statistics compiled in 2007 and released in 2010 cite suicide as the eleventh leading cause of death in the United States. This reflects a pattern of relative stabil- ity in suicide rates since 2000 (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], http://www.cdc. gov/violenceprevention/suicide/statistics/ trends01.html). However, suicide rates for women have gradually, yet steadily increased from 2000 to 2006 (CDC, http://www. cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/statistics/ trends01.html). In the African American community, as in all ethnic groups, women are less likely to commit but more likely to attempt suicide in comparison to men (Grif- fin-Fennell & Williams, 2006; Kaslow et al., 2005; Rowell, Green, Guidry, & Eddy, 2008). The 12-month prevalence rates for nonfatal suicide attempts in African American women is high relative to men and women of other racial/ethnic backgrounds (5%; Joe, Baser, Breeden, Neighbors, & Jackson, 2006); thus, research is warranted concerning how to prevent suicide attempts among this population. The last decade has witnessed increased empirical attention to suicide pre- vention among African American women. Reviewers of this growing literature have identified the following variables as risk fac- tors for suicidal behavior in this population: psychological distress, symptoms of depres- sion and posttraumatic stress disorder, sub- stance abuse, hopelessness, aggression, maladaptive coping strategies, low levels of religiosity and spirituality, low levels of LINDSEY M. WEST,TELSIE DAVIS,NADINE KASLOW, Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Grady Health System; MARTIE THOMP- SON, and MARTIE P. THOMPSON, Department of Public Health Sciences, Clemson University. This research was supported by grant R49 CCR421767-01 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Injury Prevention and Control entitled, Group interventions with suicidal African American women, awarded to the last author (Kaslow). Address correspondence to Dr. Nadine Kaslow, Emory Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Grady Health System, 80 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive, NE, Atlanta, GA 30303; E-mail: nkaslow@emory.edu Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 41(5) October 2011 491 Ó 2011 The American Association of Suicidology