Raymond Tucker, Associate Professor

photo of Calamia Office: 207 Audubon Hall
Department of Psychology
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Email: [email protected]
View my lab webpage.

Dr. Tucker will be accepting students for Fall 2025.

Research Interests

Dr. Tucker’s research is in the area of suicide prevention. He is particularly interested in testing theories of why people die by suicide and extend these works to underserved populations. This research has the ultimate goal of informing clinical and public health initiatives. Because help-seeking is a fundamental concern in suicide prevention, Dr. Tucker also researches strategies to increase suicide-related help-seeking behaviors and the experiences of those who interact with suicide prevention interventions.

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. Students interested in suicide prevention are encouraged to contact Dr. Tucker at [email protected] and visit his website for more information: https://rtucker13.wixsite.com/mosblab

Education

Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Minor: Quantitative Methods, Oklahoma State University, 2017

Predoctoral Clinical Internship, VA Puget Sound Health Care System (Seattle), 2016-2017

B.S., Psychology, Lawrence University, 2010

Representative Publications

(*graduate mentee)

(**undergraduate mentee)

Theoretical Models of Suicide

*Moscardini, E. H., *Oakey, D. N., Robinson, A., *Powers, J., *Aboussouan, A. B., Rasmussen, S., Cramer, R., & Tucker, R. P. (in press). Entrapment and suicidal ideation: the protective roles of presence of life meaning and reasons for living. Suicide and Life‐Threatening Behavior.

*Oakey-Frost, N., Tucker, R. P., & Buckner, J. D. (2021). Ethnic identity and suicide risk among Hispanic/Latino young adults: The independent and synergistic impacts of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness. Archives of Suicide Research, 25(2), 253-268. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2019.1670766

Mitchell, S. M., Brown, S. L., Roush, J. F., Tucker, R. P., Cukrowicz, K. C., & Joiner, T. E. (2020). Improving the clinical utility of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire. Assessment, 27(3), 621-637. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191118824660

Tucker, R. P., Hagan, C. R, Hill, R. M., Slish, M. L., Bagge, C. L., Joiner, T. E. Jr., & Wingate, L. R. (2018). Empirical extension of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide: Investigating the role of interpersonal hopelessness. Psychiatry Research, 259, 427-432. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.11.005

Chu, C., Stanley, I. H., Hom, M. A., Buchman-Schmitt, J. M., Tucker, R. P., Hagan, C. R., Podlogar, M. P., Chiurliza, B., Moberg, F., Michaels, M. S., Patros, C. H. G., & Joiner T. E. (2017). The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide: A systemic review and meta-analysis of a decade of cross-national research. Psychological Bulletin, 143(12), 1313-1345. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bul0000123

Strategies to Increase Suicide-Related Help-Seeking

Tucker, R. P., **Haydel, R., Zielinski, M., & Niederkrotenthaler, T. (2020). Storytelling of suicide attempt recovery and its relationship with mental health treatment-seeking attitudes and behaviors: an experimental study. Journal of American College Health. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2020.1767110

Bauer, B. W., Tucker, R. P., & Capron, D. W. (2019). A Nudge in a new direction: Integrating behavioral economic strategies into suicide prevention work. Clinical Psychological Science, 7(3), 612-620. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702618809367

Bauer, B.W., Karnick, A., Wells, T., Tucker, R. P., & Capron, D.W. (2021). Altering preferences for suicide crisis resources using the decoy nudge: Evidence of context-dependent effects in suicide prevention decision making. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 89(1), 11-20. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000617

Gilroy, S. P., Tucker, R. P., Bauer, B. W., & Patros, C. H. G. (2021). Contemporary methods in delayed discounting: Applications for suicidology with simulation. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 51(1), 19-26. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12666

Tucker, R. P., Drapeau, C. W., Schwab, N., Campbell, F. R. (2021). Evaluation of a suicide loss support training program for organ procurement personnel. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 51(2), 308-315. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12706

Suicide Risk in Underrepresented Populations

Tucker, R. P. (2019). Suicide in Transgender veterans: Prevalence, prevention, and Implications of current policy. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 14(3), 452-468. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618812680

Tucker, R. P., Testa, R. J., Simpson, T. L., Shipherd, J. C., Blosnich, J. R., & LeHavot, K. (2018). Hormone therapy, gender affirmation surgery, and their association with recent suicidal ideation and depression symptoms in transgender veterans. Psychological Medicine, 48(14), 2329-2336. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291717003853

Tucker, R. P., *Pardue-Bourgeois, S., Snow, A., Bradstreet, M., & Cerel, J. (2019). The relationship between suicide-related exposure and personal suicidal behavior in transgender and gender-diverse veterans. LGBT Health, 6(7), 335-341. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2019.0120

*Aboussouan, A. B., Snow, A., Cerel, J., & Tucker, R. P. (2019). Non-suicidal self-injury, suicidal ideation, and past suicide attempts: comparison between transgender and gender diverse veterans and non-veterans. Journal of Affective Disorders, 259, 186-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.08.046

Tucker, R. P., Wingate, L. R., O’Keefe, V. M., Hollingsworth, D. W., & Cole, A. B. (2016). An examination of the effect of historical loss thinking frequency and rumination on suicide ideation in a sample of American Indian young adults. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 46(2), 213-222. http://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12185