Raymond Tucker
Associate Professor Louisiana State University
Areas of Expertise
Biography
A parallel area of Dr. Tucker’s research investigates historical and current cultural factors that influence suicide risk and resilience in underrepresented populations. Current work in this area has focused on the impact of minority stressors and gender affirmation medical interventions has on suicidal thinking in transgender/gender diverse (TGD) adults.
For Interested Undergraduate Students: Students can assist in multiple phases of this research, including literature searches, participant recruitment, survey and experiment development, statistical analysis, and dissemination (research posters and publications). Dr. Tucker’s research program is also active in online, campus, and community suicide awareness campaigns.
Research Focus
Suicide Risk & Lethal-Means Safety
Dr. Tucker’s research focuses on suicide risk, emotion dysregulation, and lethal-means safety, aiming to prevent self-harm across military, veteran, and civilian populations. He combines ecological momentary assessment, psychophysiological and behavioral experiments, and community firearm-storage outreach to refine risk prediction and craft evidence-based suicide-prevention strategies.
Answers
- Why do some people avoid seeking help when they’re in crisis—and how can we change that?
Avoidance of help - First - if people really want to die, they simply won't seek help. Help keeps them from their goal - dying. People don't always seek help when having suicidal thoughts because generally they don't think they need it and want to manage them on their own. This is where strong digital interventions, mobile applications, and building strong day-to-day wellness plays a critical role. But people also don't seek help out of fear of being institutionalized - being held against their will at a hospital with no shoestrings because the staff don't trust them to not hang themselves with them. That process, to many, feels more like jail then treatment. Finally, people don't seek help out of internal stigma - they feel shame about feeling suicidal and the things that led to this point. So given what is driving the reduction in help-seeking, we need different approaches. We need to have crisis options outside of the hospital (988, Bridge Center for Hope) and make sure folks know about them. We need to make sure folks know what is and isn't good in the app store to support their own coping (Virtual Hope Box, Safety Planning App). We need to teach folks the importance of storing medications and firearm safely incase their own desire to manage suicidal thoughts are overwhelmed. Increasing suicide help-seeking is a multi-faceted, public health approach for sure.
Education
Lawrence University
B.S.
Psychology
2010
Oklahoma State University
Ph.D.
Clinical Psychology
2017
Accomplishments
Psychotherapy Supervisor of the Year Award, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
2022
Psychotherapy Supervisor of the Year Award, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
2020
American Association of Suicidology’s Citizen Scientist
2020
Media Appearances
No 225 needed: Baton Rouge to keep area code-free dialing, unlike these Louisiana cities
The Advocate online
2021-03-02
The creation of a three-digit phone number for the suicide prevention hotline should make it easier for people in need of assistance to remember and call the hotline number, particularly in moments of distress, said Raymond Tucker, an assistant professor of psychology at LSU and co-director of the university's National Suicidology Training Center.
"The ability to put this as a 3 digit number, in theory, should make it more accessible to people potentially when they need it the most," Tucker said.
Articles
Desire for death and risk of suicide: Covarying wish to die out of suicidal ideation
Journal of Affective Disorders2025
Quantitative assessment of a patient's perceived risk for suicidal behavior is commonly included in suicide risk screening and treatment monitoring. Although conceptually similar, no work has examined how one's wish to die (WTD) relates to their perceived risk for suicide, or what constitutes one's belief that suicide is possible beyond their WTD. In the current study, 1168 patients presenting across a hospital system with non-zero risk for suicide completed the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality-Brief Intervention (CAMS-BI). WTD was covaried out of the overall risk rating, and nonparametric correlations between the remaining residuals and theoretical and clinical risk factors were conducted.
Preliminary Psychometric Properties of Single Item Indicators of Suicidal Thinking and Related Risk and Protective Factors: Implications for Use in Ecological Momentary …
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment2025
The use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) in suicide-related research has become more common. To decrease participant burden, single-item indicators (SIIs) have become more widely used by researchers conducting EMA studies. The present study aims to provide preliminary psychometric information on several SIIs used to assess suicide-related thoughts and related risk/protective factors in EMA research. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of several SIIs used in EMA research across two studies. Study 1 was a cross-section study of N= 888 students (78.8% cisgender women, 67.1% White, 77.3% heterosexual); Study 2 was an EMA study of N= 52 students with recent suicidal ideation (69.8% cisgender women, 62.8% White, 41.9% heterosexual). All SIIs demonstrated acceptable convergent validity, discriminant validity, and short-term predictive validity.
Suicide-related outcomes in a cross-sectional, national sample of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.
Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity2025
Although high rates of suicide attempts and suicidal ideation are documented among transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive (TNGE) Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC), research regarding the age of onset of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) is limited. This exploratory study aimed to examine the age of onset of STBs and significant differences across demographic characteristics. A sample of 110 TNGE BIPOC who endorsed past-year suicidal ideation was assessed via a national cross-sectional survey. Analysis of variance, nonparametric chi-square, and independent t tests were conducted to compare clinical characteristics across racial-ethnic groups, region, disability status, and sexuality. The majority of participants endorsed lifetime planning (75%), lifetime attempt (60%), and past-month ideation (76.36%)
Predicting self‐perceived risk of suicide: A Bayesian multilevel analysis of suicide status form constructs using ambulatory assessment
British Journal of Clinical Psychology2025
The Collaborative Assessment of Suicidality (CAMS) is an effective clinical framework to treat suicidal thoughts and behaviours. CAMS employs the Suicide Status Form (SSF) to monitor suicide risk factors across sessions. The first six items (termed the SSF Core Assessment) include psychological pain, stress, agitation, hopelessness, self‐hate and self‐reported overall behavioural risk for suicide. The first five are theoretically derived risk factors. While CAMS employs session‐by‐session tracking, no research has investigated how the five risk factors vary together and concurrently and prospectively predict self‐perceived suicide risk when assessed via ambulatory assessment.
A network analysis of social determinants of health and rates of youth suicidal ideation and suicide attempts at the neighborhood-level in Houston, Texas
Death Studies2025
To identify youth suicide risk factors and possible avenues for intervention, a social-ecological model approach has been encouraged. In considering which youth may think about or attempt suicide, the assessment of social determinants of health (SDOH) appears vital. Utilizing a network analytic approach, this study developed an estimated partial correlation network to examine relationships between youth suicidal ideation/suicide attempts via youth suicide screens (N = 17,018), and SDOH using census tract (N = 608) data indicators of Houston, TX. While most nodes showed connectivity within the network, youth suicidal ideation (M = 19.66, SD = 9.14) and suicide attempt(s) (M = 11.58, SD = 7.53) were disconnected from all nodes, aside from each other (rpartial = 0.54).
Affiliations
- Military Suicide Research Consortium (MSRC)
- Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT)
Media
