Between worlds: cultural scripts and the search for self in immigrant youth

Adolescent suicidality remains a major public health concern in North America and is shaped by developmental, relational, and sociopolitical conditions. This conceptual article synthesises literature on Latinx immigrant and immigrant-origin youth to examine how suicidality has been interpreted in relation to cultural contradiction, constrained belonging, and limited future possibility. Using a critical interpretive synthesis approach, the article brings narrative identity theory, cultural psychology, and suicidology into conversation through four themes: (1) role disintegration and cultural conflict, (2) narrative foreclosure and identity incoherence, (3) emotional suppression and suicidal silence, and (4) existential isolation and disconnection from belonging. Together, these themes suggest that suicide-related vulnerability may be understood in relation to unstable role positioning, constrained self-authorship, inhibited disclosure, and threatened belonging. The Existential Network of Suicidal Identity (ENSI) is used as a heuristic lens to organise these patterns around belonging, meaning, and self-continuity. The synthesis highlights how discrimination, institutional exclusion, and legal precarity shape the conditions under which identity, disclosure, and future orientation become difficult to sustain.