Over the past two decades, suicide rates among Black adolescents have risen 144% — the largest of any racial group, according to UC Berkeley Psychology Professor Jasmin Brooks Stephens. While most research on youth suicide focuses on factors that put youth at risk, Stephens’ work emphasizes strengths, community and hope as powerful tools to protect mental health.
Published recently in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, Stephens’ paper — “A Strengths-Based Approach to Suicide Prevention Among Black Youth: Advancing the Black Youth Thriving Framework through a Systematic Review” — introduces the Black Youth Thriving Framework for Suicide Prevention. The framework is strengths-based and culturally grounded, aiming to help Black adolescents navigate social inequities and challenges.
“At the heart of this work is my guiding belief: ‘If we want Black youth to no longer desire to die, we have to give them a reason to live’,” Stephens said. “This paper is part of that call, as it provides a framework that centers Black youth thriving, cultural strengths and hope as the foundation of prevention.”
This framework identifies six protective resources that can support Black youth’s well-being: intrapersonal assets like emotional regulation and a positive self-esteem; kinship support from family cohesion and communication; collective socialization through peers, school and community belonging; Black cultural identity and pride; hope and future orientation, including a sense of purpose; and religious and spiritual coping, such as faith-based practices.
Stephens and her team argue that cultural pride, meaningful relationships, community and a sense of purpose serve as core protective factors often missing in conventional suicide prevention models. By centering Black youth thriving, the framework provides actionable guidance for parents, schools and community organizations seeking to make young people feel seen, valued and hopeful.
“For me, a risk-based model is like a smoke alarm — it alerts you when a fire has already started,” Stephens said. “A strengths-based model is like fireproofing your home — it prevents the fire from catching in the first place.”
According to Stephens, traditional suicide prevention focuses on finding out why young people want to die and then trying to stop those things. When this approach is used with Black youth without changes, it misses the effects of social inequities that shape their realities.
Strengths-based approaches turn that idea around, putting youth flourishing at the center instead of treating it as an afterthought. Strengths-based prevention asks what makes young people want to live — what gives them hope, connection, purpose and identity — then actively builds those protective environments.
The Black Youth Thriving Framework for Suicide Prevention is designed to be used as a roadmap for action across research, clinical practice, education and community systems. Stephens recommends that therapists and counselors screen for protective strengths, not just risks, and that schools and communities create spaces where Black youth feel seen and supported.
“The answer is clear: build the ecosystems — the relationships, the cultural connections and the sense of belonging and purpose — that give Black youth not just reasons to survive, but reasons to thrive,” Stephens said.
