February Research Roundup 2026: Recently Published Findings From AFSP-Funded Studies

The Research Roundup is a regular update of recently published findings in suicide prevention research. AFSP-funded studies included in this roundup examined how…

• Racism and masculine norms can shape suicide risk and help-seeking among Black men
• Psychiatric hospitalization impacts safety and emotional well-being for suicidal adolescents
• Chronic health conditions and mental health challenges affect suicide risk in adolescents, and
• Differences in brain-based decision-making and impulse control can shape suicide risk

Researcher: Leslie Adams, PhD, MPH
Institution: Stanford University
Grant Type: 2020 Young Investigator Grant — $90,000
Grant Title: Real-time assessments of suicidality among Black men: a mixed methods approach

Suicide rates among Black men in the United States have increased over the past several decades, prompting important questions about how risk is shaped and sustained over time. Although overall suicide rates among Black Americans remain lower than those of some other groups, recent increases among Black men highlight the need for closer, more nuanced examination. Suicide risk cannot be understood through mental health symptoms alone, particularly for populations whose lives are shaped by broader social and structural conditions. For many Black men, experiences of racism, social marginalization, and constrained access to mental health care intersect with cultural expectations around masculinity, including norms that emphasize self-reliance and emotional restraint.

With her AFSP-funded grant, Dr. Leslie Adams conducted in-depth interviews with 15 Black adult men in Maryland who had lived experience with suicidal thoughts or behaviors. Using an intersectional framework, Dr. Adams explored how racial identity and masculine norms shaped participants’ emotional lives and help-seeking during periods of crisis. Many men described feeling caught in a double bind: navigating a racialized version of masculinity that emphasized toughness and emotional suppression in a society that often devalues or criminalizes Black male vulnerability. Participants spoke about learning early on that expressing distress was discouraged, whether through family messages, community norms, or broader cultural expectations, leaving them to manage trauma, fear, and despair largely on their own. This ongoing tension contributed to what Dr. Adams describes as gender role stress, a chronic strain that arose when emotional needs conflicted with rigid ideas of what it meant to be a strong Black man. Over time, this stress was linked to isolation, difficulty seeking support, and heightened suicide risk. Importantly, the findings do not suggest that masculinity or racial identity are inherently harmful. Rather, they highlight how systems of racism and narrow gender expectations can constrain emotional expression and access to care. Dr. Adams emphasizes that suicide prevention efforts for Black men must be culturally responsive and gender-informed.

Citation: Adams, L. B., DeVinney, A., Aljuboori, D., Bachman, S., Lateef, H., Habteyesus, A., & Willie, T. C. (2026). Performing Strength: Racialized Masculinity in the Lived Experiences of Black Men at Risk of Suicide. American journal of men's health, 20(1), 15579883251408351. https://doi.org/10.1177/15579883251408351  

Researcher: Marisa Marraccini, PhD
Institution: University of North Carolina
Grant Type: 2018 Standard Research Grant — $99,990
Grant Title: School Re-entry Guidelines for Adolescents Post-Hospitalization for Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors

When an adolescent experiences a suicide-related crisis, psychiatric hospitalization is often a necessary and life-preserving intervention. In moments of acute risk, inpatient care is designed to prioritize safety, stabilize symptoms, and create space for assessment and support. Clinicians working in these settings are frequently operating under urgent conditions and strict safety protocols meant to prevent immediate harm. At the same time, hospitalization is not just a clinical procedure. It is a powerful emotional and relational event. For adolescents, it may involve separation from caregivers, unfamiliar routines, constant monitoring, and a sudden loss of independence. For caregivers, it can bring fear, uncertainty, and the weight of making high-stakes decisions during moments of crisis. Despite this, relatively little research has explored how these experiences are lived by adolescents and families, or how safety-driven practices may carry emotional consequences alongside their protective intent.

To better understand these experiences, Dr. Marisa Marraccini conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 19 adolescent–caregiver dyads following psychiatric hospitalization for suicidal thoughts or behaviors. Adolescents were between 13 and 18 years old, and interviews occurred within six months of discharge. Using thematic analysis, Dr. Marraccini examined experiences across emergency department admission, inpatient hospitalization, and the emotional impact of care on both youth and caregivers. Participants described a complex balance, which Dr. Marraccini characterizes as a helpfulness–harmfulness paradox. Many adolescents valued the structure, routine, and temporary relief provided by hospitalization, describing it as a space that reduced immediate pressures and, at times, fostered connection with peers and staff. At the same time, adolescents and caregivers also described distress associated with safety procedures that, while intended to protect, were experienced as frightening, confusing, or emotionally overwhelming (e.g., prolonged emergency department stays, constant observation, restricted communication, or involvement of law enforcement during transport). Importantly, adolescents and caregivers often shared similar emotional interpretations of the hospitalization, underscoring that these experiences reverberate across the family system. Taken together, the findings suggest that inpatient care can be both protective and taxing, highlighting opportunities to strengthen trauma-informed, developmentally sensitive, and family-inclusive practices that support safety while also attending to dignity, connection, and longer-term healing.

Citation: Salem, S., Marraccini, M. E., Grove, J. L., Goldston, D. B., Pittleman, C., Cruz, C. M., Tow, A. C., Vanderburg, J. L., & Knettel, B. A. (2025). Navigating Through the Darkness: An Exploratory Study Unraveling the Experience of Hospitalization of Adolescents and Their Caregivers Amid Suicidal Presentations. Research on child and adolescent psychopathology, 53(5), 801–815. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-025-01299-w  

Researchers: Mark Ferro, PhD
Institution: University of Waterloo (Canada)
Grant Type: 2023 Standard Research Grant — $124,499
Grant Title: Suicidal Ideation and Attempts among Youth with Physical-Mental Comorbidity: A Pan-Canadian Study

Living with a chronic health condition during adolescence can place significant demands on a young person’s emotional, social, and physical well-being. Managing symptoms, attending medical appointments, navigating school demands, and trying to maintain friendships can place a steady strain on emotional well-being. When these conditions co-occur with mental or neurodevelopmental disorders (i.e., a pattern known as multimorbidity) those strains can deepen. Youth with multimorbidity often navigate complex care systems, ongoing symptoms, disruptions to school and peer life, and heightened stress within their families. While prior research has shown that both physical illness and mental health conditions independently increase suicide risk, far less is known about how suicidal thoughts and behaviors show up among adolescents living with both. It also remains unclear which individual, family, and social factors further shape risk within this particularly vulnerable group.

To explore this question, Dr. Mark Ferro used his AFSP-funded grant to examine data from 3,535 Canadian youth aged 15 to 17 who participated in the nationally representative 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth. Of these adolescents, 1,041 reported multimorbidity, defined as having at least one chronic physical illness alongside a mental or neurodevelopmental disorder. Nearly half of youth with multimorbidity reported recent feelings of hopelessness, more than one in four reported suicidal thoughts, and almost one in five reported having attempted suicide in the past year, rates far higher than those seen among youth without chronic physical conditions. Certain experiences were linked to greater risk for suicidal thoughts and behavior, including being female, experiencing bullying or other forms of victimization, having a parent or guardian with poor mental health, and identifying as having a non-heterosexual sexual orientation. The results are consistent with a cumulative burden shaped by health challenges, social stress, and family context. Dr. Ferro highlighted the need for integrated, family-centered care that brings physical and mental health services together, along with early screening and supportive, affirming environments that can help reduce risk for youth managing multiple and intersecting challenges.

Citation: Fearon, D., Luther, A., Dubin, J. A., Duncan, L., Browne, D., Colman, I., & Ferro, M. A. (2025). Factors associated with suicidality among youth in Canada with co-occurring physical illness and mental/neurodevelopmental disorders. Psychiatry research, 354, 116785. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2025.116785  

Researcher: Gerd Wagner, PhD & Fabrice Jollant, MD, PhD
Institution: Jena University Hospital (Germany) & University of Paris (France)
Grant Type: 2020 Linked Standard Research Grant — $299,980
Grant Title: The Choice of a Violent Suicidal Means: A MRI Study with Computational Modeling of Decision-Making

When we think about suicide risk, we often focus on emotional pain, depression, or moments of acute crisis. But another important part of the picture involves how people make decisions under stress. A growing body of research shows that some individuals who attempt suicide have persistent difficulties weighing long-term consequences, learning from past experiences, and inhibiting impulsive responses, even outside of crisis periods. These challenges are not about poor judgment or character. Rather, they reflect differences in how the brain integrates emotion, reward, and self-control, particularly when emotions run high. Understanding these cognitive vulnerabilities helps explain why suicide risk can persist over time and why moments of distress may escalate more quickly for some people than for others.

With support from their linked AFSP-funded grant, Dr. Gerd Wagner and Dr. Fabrice Jollant examined brain connectivity in 48 adults with a history of suicide attempts, comparing them with psychiatric patient comparison group who had depression but no history of attempts, and non-psychiatric controls. Using advanced brain imaging, the team focused on brain pathways that support decision-making and inhibition, especially connections linking reward-related and behavioral control-related brain regions. People with a history of suicide attempts showed distinct differences in these pathways, particularly in circuits involved in evaluating situational risk and future outcomes. These structural differences were related to performance on a decision-making task that measures the ability to learn from consequences over time. Individuals who had used more violent suicide methods showed more pronounced differences in the same pathways, suggesting that different patterns of suicidal behavior may be associated with different levels of cognitive vulnerability. Importantly, the researchers do not suggest that brain differences alone cause suicidal behavior. Instead, they suggest that enduring differences in decision-making and inhibitory systems may interact with emotional distress, making it harder to pause, reassess, or choose safer alternatives during moments of crisis. These findings underscore the value of prevention and treatment approaches that address not only emotional suffering, but also decision-making processes and impulse control as part of comprehensive suicide prevention efforts.

Citation: Gerd Wagner, Ani Zerekidze, Meng Li et al. White Matter Microstructural Alterations and their Association with Decision-Making Deficits in Suicide Attempters, 31 December 2025, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8194143/v1

Learn more about the AFSP research grants featured in this monthly roundup, as well as others, here.