Suicide & Suicide Attempts
Statement
Suicide and suicidal attempts are,
This is an excerpt from the paper...
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.1 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.2Similarly, 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.3 1 J. M. Toolan, "Suicide in Children and Adolescents," American Journal of Psychotherapy 29 (1987): 339. 2 G. Domino, J.C. MacGregor, and M.T. Hannah, "Collegiate Attitudes Toward Suicide," Omega 19 (198889): 359. 3 R. Fulton and G. Owen, "Death and Society in Twentieth Century America," Omega 15 (1988): 37995. 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 cu
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y adolescent television viewers were far more prone to neurotic behavior than those who had more outside activities.11 Correspondingly, systematic evidence also exists that violent television stories trigger imitative deaths within the population at large. This evidence statistically correlated that after the presence of nonfictional suicide stories, an increase is evident in imitative suicide and suicide attempts.12 Pfeffer and others believe that as children and
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10 P.G. Patros and T.K. Shamoo, Depression and Suicide in Children and Adolescents, (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1988).
11 L.B. Hendry and H. Patrick, "Adolescents and Television," Journal of Youth and Adolescence 6 (1977): 32536.
12 D.P. Phillips, "The Impact of Fictional Television Stories . . .," American Journal of Sociology 87 (1982): 134059. adolescents are exposed to violence within the media, their own concept of death changes.13. The conventional wisdom posited that children and adolescents were not able to fully comprehend death. Thus, suicidal behavior was not considered a serious threat for them. Pfeffer, however, finds that it is precisely because children and adolescents do not understand the finality of death that
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Approximate Word count = 1954
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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Suicide and suicidal attempts are,
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