Citation

Miller AB, Prinstein MJ. Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 2019; 15: 425-450.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA; email: adam.miller@unc.edu , mitch.prinstein@unc.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Annual Reviews)

DOI

10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050718-095625

PMID

30786243

Abstract

Suicide is the second leading cause of death worldwide for adolescents. Despite decades of research on correlates and risk factors for adolescent suicide, we know little about why suicidal ideation and behavior frequently emerge in adolescence and how to predict, and ultimately prevent, suicidal behavior among youths. In this review, we first discuss knowledge regarding correlates, risk factors, and theories of suicide. We then review why adolescence is a period of unique vulnerability, given changing biology and social network reorganization. Next, we present a conceptual model through which to interpret emerging findings in adolescent suicide research. We suggest that a promising area for future research is to examine adolescent suicide as a failure of biological responses to acute stress in the proximal moments of a suicidal crisis. After reviewing initial evidence for this conceptualization, we review future directions for studies on adolescent suicide. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology Volume 15 is May 7, 2019. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Language: en