Racism across time: A critical approach to youth suicide research and prevention

Suicide has disproportionately increased among ethnoracially minoritized youth in the U.S., yet causes underlying this concerning trend remain unknown. Growing research suggests that experiences of racism may play an important role in conferring suicide risk. The present article advances a critical approach for studying youth suicide by attending to experiences of racism, particularly the temporal consequences. We argue that attending to the temporality of the consequences of experiences of racism may deepen our knowledge about how it may function as a potentially traumatic stressor, which in turn, would advance youth suicide research among ethnoracially minoritized youth. First, we describe recent trends in youth suicide, emphasizing racial disparities. Next, we highlight conceptual frameworks that position experiences of racism as a potential mechanism underlying these disparities, specifically as a traumatic stressor. We then synthesize the empirical evidence supporting the link between experiences of racism - conceptualized as a multi-level, multi-dimensional construct - and its impact on youth suicide risk. Finally, we conclude with a call for a more inclusive and critical approach to youth suicide research that incorporates more contemporary frameworks of racism, particularly by examining how its impact unfolds across time as a function of age, exposure, and period.