ugend, 1984; Coleman, 1987). For example, in three of New York's northern suburbs, 36 adolescents killed themselves in 22 months; in Houston suburbs, adolescents took their own lives in three months; and in Plano, Texas, seven adolescents committed suicide in one year. Although in some of these incidents the adolescents did not know one another, in others the friendship between the youths suggest that their suicides may have been related. In response to increasing public concern, the national centers for disease control began extensive research on cluster suicides in 1984. In the meantime, the uncertainty over whether too much publicity contributes to multiple suicides has made researchers proceed cautiously about directing too much public attention to the matter. (Coleman, 1987)
The suicide behavior of adolescents and adults is similar in several aspects (Husain & Vandiver, 1984; Weiner, 1980, 1982). Irrespective of age, three times as many males commit suicide as females, but females attempt suicide three times more often than males. There is more suicide among whites than blacks, more in urban than rural communities, more in higher socioeconomic groups than among poor, and more among Protestants than among Catholics or Jews. Older adolescents and adults usually kill themselves by hanging or shooting, while younger adolescents and children usually take a drug overdose. Most people who fail in a suicide attempt have taken poisonous drugs, a method that increases the chances that someone will discover them before death occurs.
Many adolescents who kill themselves do manifest symptoms of depression, but this is not always the case. To assert that depression is the prime cause appears to be overly simplistic. The preponderance of evidence indicates that a number of other variables seem to have an impact on a person's decision to commit suicide (Emery, 1983; Weiner, 1980, 1982)
Attempts are being made to identify the ...