A Research Center for ADolescent Interconnected Approaches

for Suicide Prevention

About ARCADIA

Housed within New York University’s Institute of Human Development and Social Change, ARCADIA is a research lab that takes a developmentally-informed, population-health approach to adolescent suicide.

Traditional approaches to suicide prevention have been largely confined to the formal mental health system, creating a disconnect from the places and people that shape adolescents’ daily lives. This system-level isolation has led to delayed intervention, limited accessibility, and difficulty in early identification - ultimately reaching only a small portion of youth who need support, often years after suicidal thinking begins.

ARCADIA for Suicide Prevention emerged from this challenge wielding the “no wrong door” approach that meets youth where they are, leveraging natural support systems and spaces - from schools to primary care to emergency rooms - while drawing on diverse disciplines to better understand and support adolescents’ lived experiences.

Background

ARCADIA is named after Tom Stoppard's play "Arcadia," which follows Thomasina, a precocious girl who explores the connection between math and nature, foreshadowing concepts central to Chaos Theory. The play's title references the idea that even in beautiful surroundings, tragedy exists, paralleling the Center's focus on suicide prevention, which remains an elusive mystery. By integrating multiple disciplines, the Center aims to find order within the complexity of suicide research while acknowledging the importance of discussing this tragedy openly.

Highlights

I Don’t Want Another Family to Lose a Child the Way We Did

This New York Times op-ed highlights the urgent need for comprehensive suicide prevention strategies by sharing a deeply personal loss. Dr. Morris-Perez advocates for better mental health support, early intervention, and policy changes to prevent future tragedies. The piece emphasizes that suicide is preventable when families, schools, and communities work together to provide education, awareness, and accessible resources.

📌 Read the full article here!

Introducing the YRBS Data Package

To safeguard access to publicly funded data, we developed an open-source package that cleans and stores Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) data from 2015 to 2023 (Cañizares & Cardozo, 2025). Since 2023, this package has streamlined research by eliminating the need for SPSS/SAS licenses, providing data in CSV, SPSS, and Parquet formats, and offering intuitive variable names and seamless merging across years. Upcoming updates will enhance functionality, improve documentation, and ensure free, reliable access to YRBSS data for researchers and the public.

📌 Learn more and access the package here!

Leadership

  • Principle Investigator 

    Pamela Morris-Perez is a Professor of Applied Psychology at NYU Steinhardt and an Affiliated Professor at NYU School of Global Public Health. An elected National Academy of Education member, she has secured over $75 million for research integrating developmental psychology, suicidology, education, and policy. Her notable projects include a $5 million partnership with NYC’s Department of Education on Universal Pre-K and a $10 million NIH-funded trial on parenting interventions. Additionally, following the loss of her daughter, she founded ARCADIA to address adolescent suicide through a health-focused, developmental approach. She has also held leadership roles at NYU, significantly increasing faculty diversity and research funding.