Are they ready yet?: A theory‐driven evaluation of suicide risk assessment trainings in psychology graduate programs

Abstract

The present study sought to understand the state of suicide risk assessment trainings in clinical psychology graduate programs. We surveyed 167 clinical psychology doctoral students' behavioral competency in responding to suicidal clients and their attitudes, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and intentions related to suicide risk assessment. Hypotheses were tested using path analysis. Ninety six percent of participants reported receiving some type of suicide risk assessment training at their program. Results provided partial support for significant relationships between attitudes, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and intentions. Unexpectedly, amount of training in suicide risk assessments was not related to theory of planned behavior variables including behavioral competency. These findings have implications regarding the effectiveness of current suicide risk assessment training practices and ways to improve trainings to help increase the number of clinical psychologists competent in suicide risk assessment and management.