At the end of this presentation, participants should be better able to:

• Recognize adolescence as a critical time of vulnerability for suicidal ideation and behavior due to dramatic changes in biological and social systems.
• Describe predominant theories of suicide, with particular focus on diathesis-stress models and the role of the HPA axis.
• Illustrate a working diathesis-stress model via discussion of a recent study that examines the dynamic interplay between altered HPA stress reactivity and fluctuations in psychosocial stress states in the development of acute suicidality in adolescent females.
• Summarize the limited evidence from the nascent field of developmental affective neuroscience as it pertains to associations between biological responses to stress and adolescent suicidal ideation and behavior, and describe future directions for research in the field.