Protective Factors that Build Resilience
When we talk about suicide prevention, we often focus on risk factors, which are the circumstances, experiences, and warning signs that can increase someone's vulnerability to suicide. But prevention is also about looking at the other side of the picture: What helps people stay connected, cope with difficult experiences, and find reasons to keep going?
These are called protective factors. Protective factors are characteristics, relationships, and circumstances that can help reduce the risk of suicide and support resilience during difficult times.
Protective factors exist at many levels. Some are individual, such as perseverance, adaptability, problem-solving skills, healthy coping strategies, hope, and a sense of purpose. Others come from our relationships and communities, including supportive family and friends, healthy relationships, positive school and work environments, access to mental health care, and a sense of belonging. Religious and cultural beliefs can also be protective when they encourage connection, self-worth, hope, and seeking support when it is needed.
We don't have equal control over every protective factor. Some depend on larger systems and communities and take time to strengthen. But there are things each of us can do to build protective factors for the children and people around us.
Build strong relationships
One of the most meaningful things we can give our children is a strong, secure relationship with them. Make time to listen, spend time together, and let your child know that they can come to you with difficult things even when you don't have an immediate solution.
Help your children develop healthy relationships with friends and other safe adults in their lives, too. A child doesn't have to rely on one person for support. Having multiple people they can turn to can help them feel connected and supported when life gets hard.
Pay attention to changes
Knowing your child well can help you recognize when something has changed. Withdrawal, increased anger or sadness, apathy, significant changes in sleep or appetite, a major change in school performance, or losing interest in activities they typically enjoy can all be signs that a child may be struggling.
These changes don't automatically mean that a child is experiencing suicidal thoughts, but they are reasons to slow down, check in, and pay attention.
Make your home safer
Reducing access to lethal means is an important part of suicide prevention. Secure medications, firearms, and other potentially dangerous items in your home so that children and teens have less access to them during moments of crisis or impulsivity.
Creating a safer environment doesn't mean assuming that your child will harm themselves. It means recognizing that safety measures can provide an important layer of protection when someone is struggling.
Be part of your child's community
Protective factors aren't limited to what happens inside the home. Schools and other community spaces can play an important role in helping children develop resilience and connection.
Stay involved in your child's school when you can. Attend parent-teacher conferences, participate in school activities, volunteer when possible, and support programs that teach skills such as empathy, problem-solving, emotional regulation, and resilience.
These skills don't just help children when they're struggling. They give them tools they can draw on throughout their lives.
Normalize mental health and help-seeking
We can also strengthen protective factors by changing the way we talk about mental health.
When parents, teachers, workplaces, and community members treat mental health as a normal part of overall health, it becomes easier for people to ask for help when they need it. We can model this by talking openly and appropriately about emotions, stress, coping, counseling, and asking for support.
We don't have to wait until someone is in crisis to build resilience.
Every conversation that tells a child, You matter. You belong here. You don't have to handle this alone. It's okay to ask for help, is part of suicide prevention.
Building protective factors is something we can do every day in our homes, schools, workplaces, relationships, and communities. We may not be able to prevent every hardship a person will experience, but we can help make sure that when difficult things happen, they have connection, skills, support, and hope to draw from.
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