About this Research Topic
Suicide is an important public health issue, with more than 700,000 suicide deaths every year worldwide. Suicide in adolescents aged 15-19 is the fourth leading cause of death, and suicide prevention is an urgent issue, especially in adolescents. From the perspective of suicide prevention, it is important to identify risk factors that increase suicide risk and protective factors that reduce suicide risk, and suicide prevention is needed at various levels. Risk factors for adolescent suicide include female, suicide attempt history, mental illness, isolation, family discord, abused experiences, and bullying. On the other hand, protective factors include good relationships within the family and at school.
Social support is thought to be a protective factor for mental health and important in suicide prevention. Social support has direct and indirect effects and is categorized into several types of supportive behaviors. Previous studies that investigated the association between social support and protection from mental health problems found that sources of support vary across the life span and suggest that sources and types of characteristics of social support might influence the magnitude of the protective effects of social support on mental health, but that important evidence gaps remain. In addition, children and adolescents tend not to seek help and are reluctant to use social support around them. It is important to accumulate evidence about social support in suicide prevention for young people.
The goal of this Research Topic is to gather evidence of research for the association between social support and suicide prevention in children and adolescents and examine what social support is needed and how to promote its use.
Topics may include the following themes, but not limited to:
• Types of social support and methods of providing social support in preventing suicide among children and adolescents
• Effective social support to prevent re-attempts for children and adolescents with a history of suicide attempts
• Education and intervention in school settings aimed at preventing suicide
• Role and training of gatekeepers for the purpose of preventing suicide of children and adolescents
• Promoting acceptance of social support among children and adolescents at risk of suicide
Social support is thought to be a protective factor for mental health and important in suicide prevention. Social support has direct and indirect effects and is categorized into several types of supportive behaviors. Previous studies that investigated the association between social support and protection from mental health problems found that sources of support vary across the life span and suggest that sources and types of characteristics of social support might influence the magnitude of the protective effects of social support on mental health, but that important evidence gaps remain. In addition, children and adolescents tend not to seek help and are reluctant to use social support around them. It is important to accumulate evidence about social support in suicide prevention for young people.
The goal of this Research Topic is to gather evidence of research for the association between social support and suicide prevention in children and adolescents and examine what social support is needed and how to promote its use.
Topics may include the following themes, but not limited to:
• Types of social support and methods of providing social support in preventing suicide among children and adolescents
• Effective social support to prevent re-attempts for children and adolescents with a history of suicide attempts
• Education and intervention in school settings aimed at preventing suicide
• Role and training of gatekeepers for the purpose of preventing suicide of children and adolescents
• Promoting acceptance of social support among children and adolescents at risk of suicide
Keywords: child and adolescent mental health, suicide, self-harm, prevention, social support
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
