Citation

Posamentier J, Seibel K, DyTang N. Trauma Violence Abuse 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/15248380211039475

PMID

35139714

Abstract

Schools in the United States increasingly incorporate social-emotional learning (SEL) as a part of comprehensive youth suicide prevention programs in schools. We reviewed the literature to investigate the inclusion of SEL in youth suicide prevention efforts. We identified several known risk factors to youth suicide, namely, hopelessness, anxiety, substance use, and child sexual abuse, then cross-walked that review to SEL competencies shown to mitigate each of those known risk factors. We found all SEL competencies, to some extent, across all the evidence-based, school-based youth suicide prevention programs we identified. Further, we found that all five SEL competencies are shown directly to address and mitigate the major, known risk factors for youth suicide. These findings suggest that SEL can play a productive role in upstream youth suicide prevention. State-level policy makers and school administrators should consider the inclusion of evidence-based SEL in efforts to address youth suicide prevention.

Language: en

Keywords

risk and protective factors; social–emotional learning; youth suicide prevention