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Review
. 2021 Dec;31(4):1068-1096.
doi: 10.1111/jora.12614.

Advances in Research on Adolescent Suicide and a High Priority Agenda for Future Research

Matthew G Clayton  1 , Olivia H Pollak  1 , Sarah A Owens  1 , Adam Bryant Miller  1 , Mitchell J Prinstein  1
Affiliations
Review

Advances in Research on Adolescent Suicide and a High Priority Agenda for Future Research

Matthew G Clayton et al. J Res Adolesc. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States, yet remarkably little is known regarding risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs), relatively few federal grants and scientific publications focus on STBs, and few evidence-based approaches to prevent or treat STBs are available. This "decade in review" article discusses five domains of recent empirical findings that span biological, environmental, and contextual systems and can guide future research in this high priority area: (1) the role of the central nervous system; (2) physiological risk factors, including the peripheral nervous system; (3) proximal acute stress responses; (4) novel behavioral and psychological risk factors; and (5) broader societal factors impacting diverse populations and several additional nascent areas worthy of further investigation.

Keywords: Suicide; adolescence; resilience; risk factors.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Leading causes of death over the past 50 years. Note: Data represents the leading causes of death over the past 50 years as a proportion of change in death rate since 1968. Data adapted from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention WONDER Online Database (2019).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Publications in high impact journals for several adolescent clinical problems from 2011 to 2020. Note: Data represents results of PsychInfo keyword search utilizing expanders and Boolean/Phrase search modes across 20 high impact developmental and clinical psychology journals (all impact factors > 4.000), limited to the adolescent age period (13–17). Search completed using the following terms for respective clinical problems: depression (“depress*),” anxiety (“anxiety”), ADHD (“adhd or attention of deficit hyperactivity disorder or attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder”), substance use (“substance abuse or substance use or drug abuse or drug addiction or drug use”), and suicide (“suicide*”). This table did not preclude overlapping cases.
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