Keywords

suicide, suicide prevention, stigma, family communication, youth, mental health literacy

Abstract

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth in the United States. Suicide remains to be a stigmatized topic. There is a necessary need for families to openly communicate about suicide as well as knowing what measures they need to take to prevent them from occurring. Providing a child with a secure attachment and an authoritative parenting style decreases the likelihood of suicidal ideation as well as engaging in suicide-related behaviors (Diamond et al., 2022). Media exposure may serve as a resource for parents to enhance their knowledge on mental health literacy (Abesinghe et al., 2023; Cingel et al., 2021). Parents may experience heightened levels of anxiety, depression, accompanied by sleeping disturbances, as a result from visiting the ER with their child from a suicide-related incident (Smith et al., 2023). Siblings may be left feeling isolated or overprotected by their parents after the loss of their sibling. Sometimes the other children in the household may even be neglected from their parents as parents shift their focus onto their affected child (Adams et al., 2019; Weissinger et al., 2023). Parents and children can participate in suicide prevention interventions like ITT-FT and YAM that provides them with tools to assist those who are struggling with suicidal ideation and suicide-related behaviors (Schlagbaum et al., 2020; Schuck et al., 2023). Thus, family conversations on suicide are essential to break the stigma surrounding it.