Abstract
The Journal of Black Psychology in collaboration with the Association of Black Psychologists is issuing a call for papers on Black children and suicide. While the overall rate of suicide among all children between the ages of 5 and 11 have remained fairly stable and low for the periods of 1993 to 1997 and 2008 to 2012, the pattern looks differently based on race (Bridge et al., 2018). Bridge et al. reported that the suicide rate of Black children, ages 5 to 11, increased dramatically during the aforementioned time periods but decreased for White children. As Bridge et al. noted, these “findings underscore the need to explore potential race-related differences in mechanisms of suicide and to develop more effective suicide detection and prevention efforts for black children (pp. 698-699).” Thus, the purpose of this call is to heighten awareness of this issue through scholars who are working on the mental health of Black children to come up with best practice solutions for parents, the community, practitioners, and policy makers. Issues that are of interest include the following, but are not limited to only these:
Factors associated with increased suicide risks—families, schools, bullying, peers, community, sexual orientation, and social media
Theoretical/conceptual papers that further understanding of the problem
Qualitative papers on parents/child’s perspective of completed or past attempts
Clinical papers identifying effective interventions
The focus must be on Black children and the issue of suicide. Here are some examples of what fits the call:
Prevention studies on educating parents, children, the community, and various child providers
Identification of factors that may be protective or promotive of positive mental health or detrimental to mental health, increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior (e.g., bullying, little family or social support, social media, sexual identity)
Best practices of intervention strategies, culturally focused, to treat suicidal ideation or attempts in Black children
Evaluation of conceptual or theoretical views of suicidology and Black children grounded in evidence-based knowledge
Systematic literature review on Black children and suicide grounded in evidence-based knowledge
We are looking for a mixture of papers, full-length manuscripts as well as brief reports, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies, literature reviews, and conceptual papers.
Commentaries are also possible if they address realities of Black children and suicide from prevention to intervention, including health services, health systems, and policy-relevant topics. These papers must be evidence-based, not an editorial.
Finally, case studies will be considered that are relevant to Black children and suicide, such as innovations in prevention or interventions.
Submission Information
Submit the manuscript through journal’s portal and create an account: mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jbp.
Deadline for submission: June 1, 2020
Evaluation: The manuscript will be reviewed by a review panel and authors will be notified of the decision within 45 to 60 days of submission.
Submission of a manuscript does not guarantee eventual publication, as all manuscripts will be peer-reviewed as per usual protocol with submissions to the Journal of Black Psychology.
Note that all authors who have submitted a manuscript may be asked to serve as a reviewer on one to two other manuscripts considered for inclusion in this Special Issue.
The expected publication date for the special issue will be in 2021.