SUICIDE IN CHILDREN: PREDICTIVE FACTORS
According to Hill (1998), of the 300,000 people who attempt suicide every year, about 10 percent succeed. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in kids under 15 years of age; and about one in every ten teenagers will attempt to commit suicide before they finish high school.
Moreover, since 1950 suicide among young people has increased by 250 percent and is showing signs of continuing to increase (Hill, 1998). In Los Angeles county alone in one year, youth suicide climbed 80 percent (Rivera 2001). These alarming statistics highlight the importance of the need to fully understand the factors that contribute to suicide among youth.
The first part of this paper examines the current research investigating predictors of suicide in young people. To this end, three categories of suicide predictor research are examined: studies using clinical samples; studies using non-clinical samples; and studies comparing predictors of clinical and non-clinical samples. The second part of this paper examines both one tragic youth who committed suicide in front of his classmates as well as the issues faced by youth suicide in one major county. The review ends with the formulation of several conclusions concerning factors that assist in predicting suicide risk in young people.
Predictors of Suicide in Children and Adolescents
Research Conducted on Clinical Samples
What variables place children and adolescents at risk for suicide? Some researchers have searched for the answer to this question by investigating clinical samples. In one such study, Lipschitz, Winegar, Nicholoau, Hartnick, Wolfson and Southwick (1999) assessed suicide risk in 34 boys and 37 girls who were inpatients in psychiatric hospitals.
About 51 percent of sample patients had attempted suicide. Findings of the study indicated that those who had attempted suicide were significantly more likely to be female, to repor...