New Data on the Nature of Suicidal Crises in College Students: Shifting the Paradigm

This article presents new data on the nature of suicidal crises in college students. Data were collected from over 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students at 70 colleges and universities. An anonymous Web-based survey was designed to provide insight into the full spectrum of suicidal thought, intent, and action among college students. The authors discuss implications of these data and outline a new, problem-focused paradigm for conceptualizing the problem of college student suicidality and for guiding institutional policies and interventions at multiple points along the continuum of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The proposed paradigm encompasses and expands on the current model of treating individuals in crisis in order to act preventively to reduce both prevalence and incidence of all forms of suicidality among college students.