Dear Colleagues,

Suicide remains a pressing global social and public health challenge. Despite the vast research on this topic and the generalized concern about its predictability, significant gaps remain in our ability to understand, predict, and ultimately prevent suicide and suicide related behaviors (SRB), such as the desire for death, suicidal ideation, suicidal planning, suicidal attempt, and even non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Psychology, as a discipline, is uniquely positioned to address these gaps. It provides the theoretical frameworks, methodological tools, and intervention approaches necessary to unravel cognitive, emotional, and behavioral pathways that lead to the risk of suicide.

This Special Issue, entitled “Psychological Approaches to Understanding and Preventing Suicide and Related Risk Factors”, aims to consolidate and advance our knowledge on suicidal behavior and SRB by highlighting integral approaches to suicidology. Integral approaches to suicidology are grounded in ecological perspectives on human development and behavior that attend to individual (e.g., psychological distress and intolerance to uncertainty), relational (e.g., interpersonal violence and family functioning), and community (e.g., community disorder and community resources) protective and risk factors.

We seek to showcase and promote research that deepens our theoretical understanding of suicide and provides potential insights for research, clinical practice, prevention, and public policy. In this regard, we invite high-quality contributions from researchers and professionals with a particular focus on, but not limited to, the following key topics:

Understanding mechanisms:

• Cognitive and emotional factors (e.g., hopelessness, loss of sense of life, rumination, cognitive flexibility, psychological distress, intolerance to uncertainty).
• Interpersonal factors (e.g., social support, bullying and cyberbullying, intimate partner violence, perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness).
• Developmental trajectories and life experiences (e.g., trauma, adverse childhood experiences).
• The psychological distinction and overlap between SRB, NSSI, and suicide attempt and suicide.

Assessment and prediction:

• Innovations in psychological assessment for suicide risk.
• The use of technology in monitoring.
• Identifying novel psychological protective or risk markers of acute and long-term risk.

Prevention and intervention:

• Efficacy and effectiveness studies of psychological interventions (e.g., CBT, DBT).
• Novel therapeutic targets and mechanisms of change in psychotherapy for suicide risk.
• Low-cost psychological interventions.
• Implementation science: bridging the gap between research, clinical practice, and community.
• Psychological approaches to suicide prevention in specific vulnerable communities (e.g., adolescents, veterans, minorities).

Prof. Joel Juarros Basterretxea and Prof. Héctor Morillo Sarto
Guest Editors