SENGinar: Understanding and Preventing Suicidal Behavior Among Students with Gifts and Talents

Some students with gifts and talents (SWGT) are among the thousands of children and adolescents who die by suicide every year. While limited research suggests that they are not necessarily more likely to engage in suicidal behaviors than their nongifted peers, they do have unique risk and protective factors. Risk factors can accumulate to outweigh protective factors, causing a downward trajectory toward psychache, a condition of intense psychological pain and hopelessness. Without intervention, SWGT suffering from psychache are in imminent danger of suicide. This webinar describes an ecological model of suicidal behavior among SWGT that provides an explanation and framework for suicide prevention efforts. There is some good news to share.

About the Presenter:

Dr. Tracy L. Cross, holds an endowed chair (Jody and Layton Smith Professor of Psychology and Gifted Education), and is the Executive Director of the Center for Gifted Education and the Institute for Research on the Suicide of Gifted Students at William & Mary. He has published over 200 articles, book chapters, and columns, made over 300 presentations, and published eleven books. He is President Emeritus of the National Association for Gifted Children and The Association for the Gifted. He has edited seven journals and for nine years, served as the Executive Director of the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities.