Suicidal Attempts and Deaths

Suicide and suicidal attempts are, contrary to popular wisdom, quite frequent in childhood and adolescence. Even in the 1970s, suicidal death was shown to be one of the fastest growing adolescent problems, ranking fourth as the leading cause of death in the fifteentonineteenyear age group (Toolan, 1987, p. 339). This view is echoed in the more current literature in the field, and also emphasizes that 59 to 71 percent of surveyed adolescents believe suicide to be a potential for most within that age group (Domino, et.al., 198889, p. 359).

Similarly, attitudes toward death within the fabric of American society have significantly changed in post WorldWar II society, primarily because of the pervasive influence of television and the rapid rise in the importance of the media. Prior to the advent of the media age, most Americans lived in smaller, more tightlyknit communities. Both suicide and accidental death were thus experienced at a more personal level members of the community facing the situation locally (Fulton and Owen, 1988).

As television and motion pictures grew in popularity, however, images of violence, death, and suicide formed more of a cognitive pattern within the framework of popular culture (Phillips, 1983). Films such as "Halloween," "The Road Warrior," and "Rambo" depict death in vivid color and often in slow motion. This detailed destruction of humans serves to eclipse the meaning of death and lessen its impact upon the viewer. Conversely, this

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ities where suicide has occurred, a rise in imitative attempts also occurs. This is especially true if a popular person or role model attempts suicide. It is logical to assume, then, that similar imitative behavior occurs when the role model is presented within the media (Wasserman, 1984; Davis, Sandoval and Wilson, 1988). At the same time, there is also ample evidence indicating that there is no significant correlation between media depiction and resulting imitative suicidal behavior. For instance, Berman (1988) reanalyzed a nationwide sample of suicide cases. He found no evidence for increased numbers of suicides after broadcasts of media depictions of suicide. What little correlation that existed was explained as "a complex interaction among characteristics of the stimulus, the observer of that stimulus, and conditions of time and geography" (Berman, 1988, p. 982). Methodologically, Berman studied the 2week period preceding madefortelevision movies depicting suicide. In this case, the primary media events were a film entitled "A Reason to Live," "Surviving," and "A Desperate Exit." These were NBC and ABC movie broadcasts on January 7, 1985, February 10, 1985, and September 17, 1986. The movies chronicled a teenage

Category: Psychology - S