DEPRESSION, HOPELESSNESS AND ADOLESCENT SUICIDE

According to Sue, Sue and Sue (1994), as many as 250,000 adolescents in the United States attempt suicide each year; of these, approximately 3,000 successfully end their lives. This societal tragedy has led several researchers to examine for associations between the suicide behavior of teens, hopelessness (negative expectation for one's future) and depression (an emotional state characterized by intense dysphoria, sadness, feelings of futility and worthlessness, and withdrawal from others).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current research investigating for relationships between hopelessness, depression and suicide. The reviewed research will be examined in two categories: (1) studies conducted using samples drawn from rural populations; and (2) studies conducted using samples drawn from non-rural populations.

Adolescent Depression, Hopelessness and Suicide

Unfortunately, a good deal of the research done on adolescent populations has not specifically examined adolescent suicide in the context of both depression and hopelessness. However, depression has been found to be a factor in rural adolescent suicide.

For example, Adcock, Naggy and Simpson (1991), in their survey of stress, depression, attempted suicide, and knowledge of common signs of potential suicide among 3,803 Alabama eighth- and tenth-grade public school students (52% female), found that depress

. . .
reported significantly more hopelessness than ideators. It was also found that during the suicidal episode, attempters, relative to ideators, spent more time ideating, were more likely to isolate themselves, and were less likely to tell anyone what they were thinking. Finally, no differences were found between the two groups in terms of Beck Depression Inventory scores; in other words, both groups were equally depressed. These findings led the authors to conclude that degree of hopelessness was one of the primary factors distinguishing ideators from attemptors. Other factors were said to be a tendency toward isolation, not talking about ideation, and longer length of time ideating during suicidal episodes. Reifman and Windle (1995) examined independent prospective predictors of adolescent suicidal behavior as part of a longitudinal study of two Buffalo, New York high school cohorts---a large cohort (N = 698) and a small cohort (N = 283). Both cohorts were surveyed to determine independent prospective predictors of suicidal thoughts, communications and attempts. Within each cohort, two measurements were conducted six months apart. Structural equation models were tested, with depression, hopelessness, alcohol consumpt
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Approximate Word count = 2276
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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