Magness, C. S., Engelhardt, J., Lee, S., Persky, S., Funk, C., DeCamp, L., & Ewell Foster, C. (2026). Development and evaluation of suicide prevention for child welfare involved youth: An asynchronous online curriculum for prospective child welfare workers. Children and Youth Services Review, 187, 108982. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2026.108982
Abstract
Youth involved in the child welfare system are at elevated risk for suicide, yet there is a lack of suicide prevention education and training for social work students and child welfare professionals. This pilot study describes the iterative development and preliminary evaluation of a free, asynchronous online course called Suicide Prevention for Child Welfare Involved Youth. Participants included 29 adult college/university students and child welfare staff (89.7% female, Mage = 30.7, SD = 11.5). Using self-report pre- and post-test surveys, this study investigates the online course’s feasibility and acceptability, learners’ knowledge uptake, and the preliminary impact of the course on key mechanisms of action that health behavior change theories indicate are important to suicide prevention. Of the 29 participants who completed the pre-test and all five modules, 27 (93.1%) completed the post-test. Findings from this preliminary evaluation demonstrate that the course is feasible, acceptable, and associated with high levels of learner knowledge uptake and positive changes in learners’ self-reported beliefs about suicide prevention, preparedness, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions to engage in suicide prevention behaviors.
Keywords
Youth suicide prevention; Child welfare; Asynchronous online training; Social work education; Acceptability and feasibility