Participants in this arm will receive 6 weekly sessions of an adapted, brief Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (BIPT-A) delivered by trained youth mentors (n=5) at the partnering youth community centers. The intervention focuses on improving interpersonal functioning, communication skills, and supportive relationships to reduce depressive symptoms, low belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness.

Participants in this arm will continue to receive the standard youth programming and services offered at the participating community centers. This is an individual session focused on active listening.

Adolescents in this intervention will receive 6 weekly sessions of an adapted brief version of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (BIPT-A), delivered by trained lay providers (i.e., youth mentors) in youth community centers. The adaptation used a community-participatory research approach to culturally and contextually meet the needs of immigrant-origin inner-city adolescents. The adapted intervention keeps core elements (education, affect identification, and interpersonal skills) and bolsters these skills to target belongingness and burdensomeness, which are factors associated with suicide ideation. Sessions follow a structured, manualized approach. The goal is to reduce depressive symptoms, increase sense of belongingness, and decrease perceived burdensomeness among adolescents with subthreshold depression (score between 4-9 in the PHQ-A).

The Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM) is a 4-item self-report survey (Weiner et al., 2017) used to assess whether the intervention can be successfully carried out (feasible). The scores for the 4 items are averaged, yielding a total score of 1-5, where 1-2 indicates low perceived feasibility, 3 indicates moderate, and 4-5 indicates high perceived feasibility. In summary, higher scores indicate higher perceived feasibility (a better outcome).

The Acceptability and Appropriateness of Intervention Measure (AIM) is an 8-item self-report survey that assesses whether the intervention is satisfactory (acceptability) and relevant (appropriateness). The measure is divided into 4-item subscales: acceptability and appropriateness. These constructs are evaluated separately, with an average score ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high) (Weiner et al., 2017). Higher scores indicate higher satisfaction (acceptability) and relevance (appropriateness), meaning a better outcome.

Depressive symptoms are one of the study's mechanisms of change associated with passive suicide ideation.

Depressive symptoms will be measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Adolescent version (PHQ-A), a 9-item self-report scale. PHQ-A has been validated with the adolescent and Hispanic populations. Most studies use ≥10 as the cutoff score, indicating clinically significant depressive symptoms among adolescents. The total score is the sum of all 9 items (0-27), where 0-4 is minimal or no depression, 5-9 mild depression, 10-14 moderate depression, 15-19 moderately severe depression, and 20-27 severe depression. In summary, higher scores indicate greater severity of depressive symptoms (a worse outcome).

Due to the co-occurrence of depressive symptoms with anxiety among adolescents, the investigators will measure anxiety symptoms. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), a 7-item self-report scale to assess anxiety, will be used to measure anxiety symptoms.

A score of 10 or above typically indicates clinically significant anxiety symptoms and the need for further evaluation. The items (7) are summed, with scores ranging from 0 to 21, where 0-4 indicates minimal anxiety, 5-9 mild anxiety, 10-14 moderate anxiety, and 15-21 severe anxiety. Higher scores indicate greater anxiety severity (a worse outcome).