Editorial: Leveraging Understudied Biological Risk Factors to Enhance Prediction of Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempts, and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Preadolescents.

Abstract

Despite the prevailing perception that preadolescent children do not experience suicidal thoughts and behaviors, 13.2% of children aged 9 to 10 years report that they have experienced suicidal thoughts at some point in their life, 9.1% report a history of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), defined as deliberate self-harming behavior without suicidal intent, and 1.3% report making a suicide attempt.¹ In addition, suicide rates for children aged 8 to 12 years have been increasing since 2008, and suicide is now the fifth leading cause of death in this age group.² However, relatively little is known about risk and protective factors for self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) among preadolescents. The biological underpinnings of suicidal ideation, suicidal behavior, and NSSI have been studied extensively (see Mann and Currier for a review³). Importantly, these studies focus almost exclusively on adolescent and adult samples, and translation of biologically based findings into clinical practice remains a challenge. Across clinical settings, suicide risk screening is increasingly being implemented with preadolescents, but there is a relative lack of developmentally sensitive screening and intervention tools,⁴ and detecting child suicide risk as completely and efficiently as possible remains a challenge. Thus, finding ways to bridge biological findings and suicide risk screening is a promising, yet underutilized, approach with great potential. With the emergence of more large, longitudinal studies that capture a combination of biological, psychological, and social risk factors for SITBs, it is becoming increasingly possible to examine an array of risk and protective factors simultaneously and evaluate the relative strength of these predictors.