Understanding Suicidality in Young People: Developmental, Psychosocial, and Cultural Perspectives
A Special Issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X) belonging to the section "Psychiatric, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 March 2027 | Viewed by 185
Editors
Interests: psychosocial and cultural aspects of depression and suicidality across the lifespan; the psychology of adolescence; the therapeutic relationship; psychoanalytic theory
Interests: suicide crisis syndrome; narrative crisis model; suicide prevention; suicide risk assessment; clinical implementation; acute suicidal states; adverse childhood experiences; acute psychiatric care
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Suicidality among young people is a major clinical, developmental, and public-health concern. In this Special Issue, the term young people refers broadly to children, adolescents, and emerging adults, with particular attention to the developmental pathways through which suicidal ideation, self-harm, suicide attempts, and suicidal behavior emerge across childhood, adolescence, and the transition to adulthood.
Although suicide deaths are less frequent in childhood than in adolescence and young adulthood, childhood remains a crucial period for understanding the early emergence of suicidal thoughts, death wishes, unbearable affect, shame, trauma, relational rupture, self-destructive behavior, and difficulties in communicating distress. Adolescence and emerging adulthood, in turn, are marked by profound transformations in identity, bodily experience, autonomy, dependency, family relationships, peer and romantic bonds, educational and occupational transitions, cultural belonging, and future orientation.
This Special Issue aims to move beyond descriptive accounts of risk and toward a deeper understanding of the mechanisms, meanings, and developmental pathways through which suicidality takes shape across development. We welcome empirical, theoretical, clinical, and review papers from diverse methodological perspectives, particularly those offering clear theoretical grounding.
Dr. Eliane Sommerfeld
Dr. Yael Apter Levy
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- suicidality in children, adolescents, and emerging adults
- developmental psychopathology
- psychosocial and contextual factors of suicidality
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
