Suicide is one of primary leading cause of death for Canadian youth. Most youth who die by suicide have at least one mental health concern and half of them visited emergency in the year preceding their death, but almost half do not receive any mental health services. Elevated suicide risks for Black Indigenous People of Colour youth have been reported. Research shows that (1) immigrants are at a higher risk of suicidal ideation/attempts/death and self harm compared to the general population; and that suicidal behaviour and immigration may be associated with one another due to changes in social roles, economic status, acculturation stress, experiencing discrimination, marginalisation, and feelings of isolation and loneliness in the host country. The current study aims to critically interrogate how immigrant parents make sense of losing their child by suicide that intersect with factors noted in the above literature as well as cultural values, school, social services, and child protection systems, as well as policies and legislation. This study is part of a larger study that examined parents’ perspectives on systems of care that engaged with their youth prior to suicide to improve service access, quality of mental health care, and reduce the rates of suicide in youth.
Methods: Participants eligible for this study were parents/caregivers from Ontario, Canada of a youth under 26 who died by suicide in the past 5 years. In the larger study, 17 participants were recruited through bereavement centres, and we conducted virtual semi-structured interviews. Using critical discourse analysis, this study paid attention to both linguistic and social analyses around how the semantics and contexts of the parental post-suicide narratives were constructed as causes of the immigrant youth suicide. Among the participants, we chose one case who was identified as the racialized immigrant to present an in-depth analysis. To ensure a rigor of the analysis, we triangulated the source of the data by adding the coroner’s report of this case that highlighted views from a legal stance.
Findings: Linguistic analysis identified the mother’s narratives around (1) questioning her own cultural values after her son’s suicide; (2) receiving blame on for adverse and challenging family experiences that may have contributed to the suicide; and (3) negotiating with worthy/unworthy immigrant discourses. Contextual analysis further elaborated her narratives around (1) confusion understanding breakdowns in the system of care addressing bullying, mental health, and suicide; (2) a coordination of authoritative statements labeling an immigrant child as troubled; and (3) identifying racism as a primary contributor to all struggles for both the mother and son.
Discussion: The findings provide evidence and further elaborate on current research regarding how racism and stigma perpetuate ongoing disparities, marginalization, and oppression among vulnerable immigrant youth and their families. In-depth narratives from the immigrant youth parent on suicide are incredibly rich, offering critical perspectives that prompt a revaluation and reimagination of the suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention process from both youth and parents’ perspectives.