# Suicidality in Young Children: Social and Cognitive Developmental Markers of Risk and Resiliency

> **NIH NIH K01** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $179,399

## Abstract

Project Summary
Suicidality in children is a pressing and understudied public health concern. Rates of suicide in youth have tripled
in recent years, yet little is known about the early emergence or development of suicidal ideation and behaviors
(SI/SB). Suicidal ideation (e.g., wishing to be dead, expressing desire to kill oneself) and behaviors (e.g., choking
oneself) have been identified as early as the preschool period in the context of early-onset depression. However,
if and how suicidality presents in non-depressed young children is unknown. Importantly, early suicidality remains
stable into school-age and confers risk for later psychopathology, suggesting lasting impact and continuity of this
early manifestation. Consistent with the NIMH Strategic Objective 2, to “chart mental illness trajectories to
determine when, where, and how to intervene,” the overarching aim of this K01 application is to understand the
developmental contexts in which suicidality emerges in order to identify at-risk youth and to inform preventative
intervention efforts. The proposed study will address a number of questions central to understanding the
development of suicidality in early childhood including how SI/SB is expressed at this early age, the normative
development of the understanding of suicide, if children with SI/SB exhibit lack of optimism and/or pessimism,
and how children with SI/SB process peer acceptance and rejection. A variety of measures, including child
interview and narrative approaches, behavioral tasks, and event related potentials (ERPs) will be administered
to three groups of 4- to 7-year-olds from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds: 1) children with a history
of SI/SB, 2) children with or at risk for psychopathology but no history of SI/SB, and 3) low-risk healthy children.
The inclusion of children with or at risk for psychopathology with no history of SI/SB will address the specificity
of risk factors for suicidality relative to depressive symptoms and other forms of psychopathology. This approach
has the potential to identify transdiagnostic risk-factors of suicidality in young children. The inclusion of low-risk
healthy children will inform our understanding of typical and atypical trajectories of suicide understanding and
provide guidance regarding how and when to address expressions of suicidality in childhood as a clinical
concern. This will be the first study of children this young with SI/SB to be targeted for a study designed to
investigate the developmental antecedents of risk and resilience for SI/SB. Suicide research and prevention is a
high priority research area for NIMH and the described research and training activities will enable the candidate
to develop an independent research program that addresses the rising rates of childhood suicidality. Specifically,
the execution of the proposed project will provide the candidate with training and expertise in suicide research
and prevention, child psychopathology, and ERP...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10449539
- **Project number:** 1K01MH127412-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** LAURA HENNEFIELD
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $179,399
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-04-12 → 2027-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10449539

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10449539, Suicidality in Young Children: Social and Cognitive Developmental Markers of Risk and Resiliency (1K01MH127412-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-07-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10449539. Licensed CC0.

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