Suicide represents an international public health concern, and for adolescents aged 14 to 18 in the United States, is the third leading cause of death (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data. Available at: www.cdc.gov/yrbs. Accessed on August 30, 2023.). In response to this alarming rate, as well as the relative lack of meaningful progress in the prediction and prevention of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) over the past decades (see Franklin et al., 2017), recent reviews of the suicide literature have advocated for the adoption of novel frameworks and theoretical reexamination of the processes that confer risk for suicide. Currently, the majority of suicide theories emphasize distal factors associated with suicide risk, but these factors also generalize to other types of psychopathology and do not answer the fundamental question of “why suicide?” vs. other maladaptive outcomes. In an effort to address this gap and build off existing theoretical and empirical science from various disciplines, the current theoretical paper will explore the concept of suicide propinquity, the degree of closeness and identification with STB, as a potential moderator of the link between psychological distress and suicide. Specifically, this paper: (1) provides context within the existing theories of suicide, highlighting gaps that might otherwise be explained by propinquity; (2) discusses historical and scientific evidence of suicide phenomena that support the existence of propinquity; (3) explores potential processes of how propinquity may confer risk for STB in adolescence; and (4) suggests future directions for research to examine adolescent suicide from a propinquity perspective.

自杀是一个国际公共卫生问题，对于美国 14 至 18 岁的青少年来说，自杀是第三大死因（美国疾病控制与预防中心。2021 年青少年风险行为调查数据。可访问：www.cdc.gov /yrbs。访问日期：2023 年 8 月 30 日。）针对这一令人震惊的比率，以及过去几十年来在预测和预防自杀想法和行为 (STB) 方面相对缺乏有意义的进展（参见 Franklin 等人，2017），最近对自杀文献的评论主张采用新颖的框架并对导致自杀风险的过程进行理论上的重新审查。目前，大多数自杀理论强调与自杀风险相关的远端因素，但这些因素也泛化到其他类型的精神病理学，并没有回答“为什么自杀？”的基本问题。 ”与其他适应不良的结果。为了弥补这一差距并建立来自各学科的现有理论和实证科学，当前的理论论文将探讨自杀邻近性的概念，即与 STB 的亲密程度和认同程度，作为心理困扰之间联系的潜在调节因素。和自杀。具体来说，本文：（1）提供了现有自杀理论的背景，强调了可能通过邻近性来解释的差距； (2) 讨论支持邻近关系存在的自杀现象的历史和科学证据； (3) 探讨邻近性如何赋予青春期 STB 风险的潜在过程； (4)提出了从邻近角度审视青少年自杀的未来研究方向。