Racial, ethnic, and cultural expressions of interpersonal psychological theory of suicide (RECEIPTS): An integrated model of structural racism and suicide risk

Abstract

Suicide risk is a significant public health concern for individuals and communities across the United States, and the rates of suicidality are disproportionately rising for Black Americans. Recent frameworks have articulated the significance of structural racism as a mechanism that may explain the increasing rates of suicide among Black Americans, in part, through its exacerbating effects on salient risk conferring pathways. However, existing scholarship in this area has been developmentally limited in scope and does not specify how structural racism operates as a macrolevel determinant of suicide across the lifespan. To address this gap, we present the Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Expressions of Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide (RECEIPTS), which highlights how structural racism catalyzes suicide risk for Black Americans. The RECEIPTS model supports and extends tenets of the interpersonal theory of suicide and provides a generalizable and comprehensive framework to understand the complex and intersecting factors that contribute to suicidality among Black Americans across the life course. The RECEIPTS framework highlights structural racism's impact on suicide risk, offering implications for culturally informed prevention, research, and clinical practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).