Adolescent Suicide

Introduction

The purpose of this research was to find out the causes of death among teenagers. The backing of this research was a result of statistical finding by centers of research disease control conducted in 2002. However, according to the previous research in the past decade, adolescent suicide hade decreased by a rate of 25%. The research was exploring how both psychological factors as well as demography of a particular group of people relates to suicide and suicide attempts amongst teenagers (Rutter & Behrendt, 2004).

Research questions

What are the individual factors cause suicides and suicide attempts among teenagers’?
What is the adolescent ethnicity?
What is the adolescent sexual orientation?
What is the adolescent level of education?
What was the adolescent level of social support by the family?

Hypothesis

The hypothesis of this research was physiological factors as well as demographic orientation cause death among the teenagers.

Method used

One hundred students were the sample of the student that participated in the research. The adolescents were mainly from support agencies and the public universities. The number of adolescents that came from the support agencies group was 50 in number. The other 50 adolescents were recruited from an urban university. The division of the participants among the sample group was such that Caucasians were 53%; African Americans were 25% while 3% were Hispanic Americans. The rest of the group that was 13% comprised of Native Americas and mixed races. In terms of their ages, 14% of them were 17 years of age another 37% were 18 years of age while the rest which was forty nine percent were nineteen years of age. Their sexual orientation was such that in comprised homosexuals, bisexuals, and heterosexuals. Their percentages were 26%, 24%, and 50% respectively.

Variable

In this research, suicide is the dependent variable while both psychological factors and demographic orientation are the independent variables.

Research methods

Surveying and testing were the methods used in coming up with these results, a survey was carried out of the various groups of individuals of different demography and testing for the various psychological factors was done by various scales. The various psychological factors include the following: Low social support, having a low self-concept, hostility, as well as hopelessness. The instruments used in collection of this data are Suicide probability schedule (SPS), beck helplessness scale (BHS) a Suicide questionnaire (SQ) and a demographic form. There was no doubt on the reliability of SPS as it was used to focus on issue of hopelessness, having negative self-concept, hostility and the idea of committing suicide since it had previously been used in other research. On the other hand, BHS scale has a measure of the future negative belief that someone may have about himself and has 20 statements where a rank is given. The greatest levels of hopelessness are expressed by the higher scores in the scale. However, for the case on the suicide questionnaire it is used as a clinical interview. There was no guarantee of the reliability of the suicide questionnaire, thou they have a high validity level (Rutter & Behrendt, 2004). The contents on the demographic form were the ethnic orientation of the participant, the sexual orientation, and the social support levels given by the family and friends as well as the education level attained by the participant.

Results

The results for the survey were achieved by first dividing the group into quartiles where each quartile contained 25 people. The group in the higher quartiles carried the day as far as the SPS scale was concerned. The same results were duplicated in the BHS scale: finally, the results showed a positive relationship between both the SPS and BHS scales. Comparison was made between the two groups that is group one and group two and were entered according to suicidal questionnaire given out. The questions asked were inclusive of the following: Have you suffered injury as a result of attempts to commit suicide? Was the attempt so bad that it required medical intervention? The other question was aimed at finding out if the participants have endured hospitalization as a result of injury due to suicidal attempts. Great differences were experience in the second and the third question between the two groups (Rutter & Behrendt, 2004).

Discussion and application

On the SPS score, it was found that hopelessness was a big contributor to the suicide attempts experienced: however, a notable difference was experienced when it came to the BHS scale and the two sample groups had a big difference. The same was experienced when it came to social support as the two had a big difference however, the difference did not affect the research significantly. The relationship between hopelessness, having negative self-concept, incidents of isolation and hostility was a correlation one and they all increased incidences of causing risk of suicide. The results showed that having hopelessness in adolescent life can be attributed to depression and can cause a risk of an adolescent wanting to engage in suicide. Hostility is also a risk factor to adolescent as it can cause self-injury and ultimately death. There are also instances of a person inducing injury to them in an attempt to direct it so someone else. Self-concept that is inclusive of things like social failure can also cause an adolescent to try and engage himself in suicide. Self-loathing which is caused by having a negative self-concept is what mostly causes the adolescent to feel the need to cause suicide. The last factor is lacking of social support (Rutter & Behrendt, 2004). It is the feeling that someone is not wanted in the society, in the family, or among the peers. The feeling that someone is not wanted in the society sometimes deprives an adolescent the desire to live. The contribution of the social institutions in fighting against suicidal attempts among the adolescents’ is undeniable. The supports that adolescents feel from these institutions are such that they make them hope for a better future. However, not only does the support affect the adolescent but also the same applies also to grown-ups. Collectively all the four factors have a great effect on the decisions an adolescent makes in reference to suicidal attempts.

Impact on our daily lives

The research has some great impacts in our lives. To start with, they give us a highlight of what can be done to stop incidences of suicide among the youth in the society. Severally, some people have mentioned that the youth are the leaders of tomorrow and they require to be projected to conserve our future. As the research has shown, having the four factors observed is of utmost importance in ensuring the youth grow up health. The duty to ensure that they are observed fall on all of us as an African saying goes it takes a village to raise a man. The results also can have a great influence in the society attempts to do away with adolescents’ suicide (Rutter & Behrendt, 2004).

Summary

The research was aimed at finding out the way to fight out adolescent suicide in the current society. A survey was carried out to try to determine the main causes of suicide, as well as the reason behind adolescents wanting to involve themselves in suicide. Four psychological issues were determined to be the cause of suicide attempts, and they include the following: hopelessness, having negative self-concept, incidents of isolation and hostility. The knowledge of this information is instrumental to the society in general since they will get to know where they need to improve so that they minimize these incidents. The instruments used in the research were reliable, as they had been used in previous research and produced reliable results. Ultimately, the research was successful as the causes of suicide among adolescents were established for the benefit of fighting this vice.

Reference

Rutter, P. A. and Behrendt, A. E. (2004). “Adolescent suicide risk: four psychosocial factors”. Health Publications. Retrieved Apri 2, 2011, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_154_39/ai_n6364177/

Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.

[order_calculator]