Adolescent Suicide: Survey of Literature and Research Proposal

Suicide is the process of deliberately ending one's own life (Jamison, 2000). Lukas and Seiden (2007) report that the effects of suicide on those left behind are "devastating." These effects include painful and conflicting emotions, changes in life circumstances, physical illnesses developed because of the stress associated with the suicide, and other painful consequences.

Joiner (2007) states that the most common method of suicide is a firearm but an overdose of medication, asphyxiation, and hanging are other common methods. Joiner also notes that treatment and prevention of suicide typically involves psychotherapy and medication. It is also pointed out that if treatment is being offered to children or adolescents, it is particularly important to ensure that they receive consistent care-taking and frequent interaction with loving and supportive adults who help them to understand their feelings.

This paper focuses on adolescent suicide. The paper first presents a review of the literature. This is followed by very brief mini-proposal for a research study of adolescent suicide.

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (2009), suicide is the fifth leading cause of death among 5 to 14 year olds and the third leading cause of death among 15 to 24 year olds. Moreover, both of these rates are increasing. Because suicide is a major public health problem, a great deal of the research and theory in the area has focused on fa

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two-year period following admission to a local hospital (because of parasuicide). All subjects were given psychiatric assessments. Stressors that the young people were experiencing were also recorded. In addition, information from agencies working with these young people, both before and after admission to the hospital, was collected. Analyses of all collected data showed three strong predictors of parasuicide. These were family conflict problems, illness in the family, and bullying from peers. Evans, Marte, Betts, and Silliman (2001) also observed that peers can contribute to suicide in young people, most especially peer-related violence. In their study, Evans et al. collected information from in-school surveys of eighth grade students (males and females) in three states, Arizona, Nevada, and Wyoming. As might be expected, collected data indicated that exposure to violence and victimization by the violence of peers led to an increase risk of suicide. However, counterintuitively, it was also observed that students who were the bullies by initiating the assault of others were more likely to experience higher levels of suicidal ideation than those who were victims of assault. In other words, perpetrators of violence against

Category: Science - A