In recognition of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, this week’s e-Weekly highlights the importance of treating suicidal behavior directly while adapting care to the young person’s cultural, family, and identity context.
A new randomized trial in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology by Duarte-Vélez and colleagues compared Socio-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Suicidal Behavior, or SCBT-SB, with treatment as usual in 114 Latinx adolescents recruited following a suicidal crisis.
SCBT-SB combines cognitive and behavioral suicide-prevention skills with attention to adolescent identity development—including ethnicity and sexual orientation—as well as parenting skills, family relationships, and communication. At the six-month follow-up, adolescents receiving SCBT-SB had half the rate of suicide attempts found in treatment as usual. They also had lower rates of broader suicidal events and nonsuicidal self-injury. The effects were similar among the 67 participants who identified as LGBTQ+.
Notably, the advantage did not persist at 12 months: the two treatment conditions no longer differed significantly on suicide attempts, suicidal events, or nonsuicidal self-injury. The findings therefore support an important short-term benefit, while also suggesting a possible need for booster sessions, continued monitoring, or a longer course of care. The study cannot determine which individual components of the culturally centered treatment produced the improvement.
Clinical Takeaway: Cultural responsiveness involves more than translating materials or matching therapists and patients by ethnicity. Consider how cultural identity, discrimination, migration or acculturation experiences, family expectations, language, religion, gender, and sexual orientation may shape the meaning of a suicidal crisis, willingness to disclose distress, family responses, and attitudes toward treatment.
At the same time, culturally responsive care should remain suicide focused. Clinicians should assess and treat suicidal thoughts and behaviors directly rather than assuming that treating depression alone will resolve the risk. With adolescents, this may include:
Developing a shared formulation of the most recent suicidal crisis.
Identifying cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, and situational triggers.
Strengthening coping, problem-solving, and communication skills.
Involving caregivers in monitoring, support, and means safety when appropriate.
Addressing family conflict without assuming that all Latinx families share the same values or structure.
Monitoring suicide attempts, suicidal events, and nonsuicidal self-injury separately.
Planning ongoing follow-up after acute improvement.
The study’s encouraging message is that culturally and identity-informed adaptations need not dilute CBT. They may help make suicide-focused treatment more relevant, acceptable, and effective—particularly during the high-risk months following a suicidal crisis.
Article: Duarte-Vélez, Y., Jimenez-Colon, G., Nocera, L., Gomez, J., Tavarez, J., Jones, R. N., Donaldson, D., Aiello, M., Torres Lopez, A., Sanchez, I., & Spirito, A. (2026). Randomized controlled trial: Behavioral outcomes of socio-cognitive behavioral therapy for suicidal behaviors in Latinx adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 55(5), 933–946.