Understanding Suicide-Related Risk in Immigrant and Ethnic and Racial Minority Youth Through an Ecological and Developmental Context

Abstract The US is home to the world’s largest immigrant population, with an estimated 51 million foreign-born migrants, who largely originate from the global south. A significant proportion of the US population thus experiences acculturation or psychological changes as they navigate between different cultural environments. Contemporary conceptualizations of acculturation draw on a bidimensional conceptualization that posits heritage retention and acquisition of the host culture as independent dimensions spread across cultural identification, values, and practices. Such models facilitate the study of the impact of acculturative processes on suicide-related risk in immigrant adolescents, particularly of ethnic and racial minority background. Although early findings suggest immigrant youth are at lower risk for suicide than US-born youth, recent findings indicate this relation is more nuanced and that acculturative processes may play an important role in suicide-related risk in immigrant and racial and ethnic minority adolescents. This chapter reviews traditional and contemporary models of acculturation and describes the role of acculturation in suicide-related risk among adolescents from immigrant families. Potential explanatory mechanisms behind the association between acculturation and suicide-related risk are identified, as well as conceptual and methodological limitations that have been prominent in the field of acculturation. Recommendations are provided pointing out how the field might best move forward. This chapter concludes with clinical implications and discusses the benefits of integrating acculturation into suicide prevention strategies to reduce suicide-related risk in immigrant and ethnic and racial minority adolescents.