A cycle of exclusion that impedes suicide research among racial and ethnic minority youth.

In the United States, suicide risk for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) is most concentrated before age 30, which contrasts with non-Hispanic White groups, for whom the highest risk period is during ages 50-65. The need for a better understanding of the underlying causes of suicidal behavior among BIPOC youth is critical. Cultural considerations were recommended over a decade ago to advance the study of youth suicide prevention and research. Without addressing the barriers to implementing these recommendations in limited-resourced settings, however, the mental health needs of BIPOC youth at risk for suicide will continue to go unmet. In this commentary, we outline structural barriers in research that perpetuate a cycle of exclusion wherein an understudied, though timely, research area faces undue burdens across the research cycle, which impedes the study of suicide risk among BIPOC youth.