Preventing suicide in youth with intellectual and neurodevelopmental disorders: Lessons learned and policy recommendations (IN: Youth Suicide Prevention and Intervention, edited by J.P. Ackerman & L.M. Horowitz)

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social communication defcits and the presence of repetitive and restricted behaviors. Based on tracking of 8-year-old children within 11  communities in the USA, 1 in 54 children was identifed with ASD in 2016 by the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network (Maenner et al., 2020). Mayes et al. (2013) found that 14% of youth with  ASD were endorsed by mothers as experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors whereas only 0.5% of neurotypical children were rated by mothers as having these same concerns. Baer et al. (2020) reported that 41.8% of parents  registered with the Interactive Autism Network (IAN) noted that their child or dependent adult (25 years or younger) had displayed suicidal behaviors. Furthermore, the most commonly reported age of onset for both passive and active suicidal  ideation was 8 years old or younger. Children as young as 5 years old were reported by their parents as having tried to end their life. Within the IAN sample, 3.5% had attempted suicide.