Change Initiative and Strategies

Assembling the Change Initiative Project
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Assembling the Change Initiative Project
Introduction
In 2019, CDC published a report on suicidal ideation and behavior and established that suicide is the second leading cause of death among high school students after unintentional injuries CITATION Ive20 \l 1033 (Ivey-Stephenson, et al., 2020). The report shows that trends in suicide attempts had increased. The report also shows that in 2019 a total of 18.8% of students seriously considered suicide, and among them, 8.9% followed through with their plans. The CDC also noted that the prevalence of suicide was higher among LGBTQ students, with a 54.2% percentage. These figures highlight the problem of depression among teenagers. If 8.9% of the surveyed students attempted suicide, that is nearly nine for every 100 students. For suicide to become the second leading killer among high school students, there must have been a structural issue that has been left unchecked, and it is claiming so many young lives.
Suicide is at least a product of stress, and therefore, can be understood as a learned behavior. Social learning theory states that learning is a cognitive process. An individual learns new behaviors by observing and imitating others. Further, the theory also points out that learning occurs through observation of the rewards and punishments. Therefore, the problem of suicide among high school children may be an attempt to seek the rewards of ending their suffering from depression. Suicide as a learned behavior can be explored with important information on subcultural factors in teenage-suicide, the role of suggestion, influences in the methods of suicide, suicide in significant others, the role of the family in shaping suicidal behavior, and cultural patterns of suicide CITATION Les87 \l 1033 (Lester, 1987). Data from these variables show that that suicide is at least in part a learned response to stress and depression.
There are some undeniable connections between the social learning theory and suicide among high school children. First, human behavior is learned through modeling. Therefore, for high school children, exposure to suicidal behavior indirectly or directly tends to increase the risk of adolescent suicidal behavior. Cluster suicides have been found among adolescents CITATION DeC15 \l 1033 (DeCamp, 2015). Secondly, the portrayal of suicide in the media also affects the way adolescents attempt their suicide. Some of the students who confessed to having considered suicide seriously also claimed that they had seen it on the media. In other cases, there have been cyber-suicide pacts (suicide pacts between strangers who have met on the internet). These trends show that suicide is a more learned behavior, and exposure to adolescents’ suicidal content may exacerbate the problem. To resolve suicidality among high school students, strategies to limit their consumption of information that inform them of suicide. Interventionists also need to know how to observe patterns that a suicidal adolescent has to determine if he/she is suicidal. For example, suppose a teenager likes watching movies with multiple depictions of suicide or visiting social media pages that seem to be anchored in promoting suicidality. In that case, he//she can help the teen seek help.
Cultures play a big role in shaping thoughts. Cultures that are tolerant of suicidal behavior are more likely to have more people commit suicide. For example, Japan has one of the highest reported cases of suicide. Japanese society has been showing suicide as an act of honor (seppuku), and society still grapples with the problem today CITATION Rus17 \l 1033 (Russell, Metraux, & Tohen, 2017). Secondly, if the environment is enabling, suicide rates jump. Enabling environment is the availability of cheap tools to commit suicide. For example, due to laws enabling Americans to purchase guns easily, there are higher rates of suicide by use of firearm than in any other country. Thirdly, individual learning styles also play a key part in exacerbating this issue. Most of the learning material is visual. Therefore, if a distressed teen comes across the content or lives in an environment that visually gratifies that content, they become predisposed to commit suicide. The best intervention strategy to lower suicide rates among distressed adolescents is to remove content that enables them to build suicidal thoughts in the environment and society and reduce the content available for learning about suicide.
The above statements culminate to agree with the point that suicide is a learned behavior. Many people become depressed, but not all of them consider suicide. If the environment is enriched with information on suicide or the society is tolerant, it paves the way for the victim to consider suicide. Media depictions of suicide are increasing, especially in the age of social media, and they may partly be to blame for the increase in suicidality among adolescents. Social learning theory highlights the factors that predispose teenagers to commit suicide. Interventionists, caregivers, teachers, guardians, parents, etc., ought to perceive suicide as a learned behavior. To address it, they need to consider the wider causative factors such as culture, environment, and how they learn about suicide to prevent the issue. By seriously considering this issue, we’d be saving nearly nine students for every hundred who die from suicide. We would also create a national dialogue about the issue and help save more lives in other demographics because suicide affects all demographics.
Change Initiative
The change initiative proposed seeks to adopt strategies that encompass the following three theories: behavioral learning theory, cognitive theory, and social constructivism theory. Below are the strategies as they apply in the theories.
Behavioral Learning Theory
The behavioral learning theory posits that behavior is learned from the surrounding. It seeks to champion the notion that behavior is influenced more by one’s environment than by its inherent characteristics. Concerning this theory, two strategies can be adopted to ensure that teenagers do not consider suicide.
One intervention involves campaigns against drugs and substance abuse among teenagers. Drugs and substance abusers have a higher risk of attempting and following through with suicide. Thus, a multifaceted approach ought to be considered to educate teenagers on how to avoid drugs. Such an intervention will also help adolescents avoid other long-term effects often associated with drugs and substance abuse.
Secondly, a multifaceted approach to reduce screen time, especially on social media where they ‘learn suicide’ or affects their mental health, should be considered. Some possible ways to address the problem will be to teach adolescents about responsible social media use. Secondly, parents and the community can come together to find other activities that can help adolescents put away their phones, like sports. Thirdly, through legislation, social media companies can be compelled to limit the screen time of anyone below 18 years to a few hours per day. All these interventions can help adolescents make better choices in life even when they are depressed. They will be less likely to do drugs, and their social media use will be limited. According to the studies, this will, in turn, lead to better mental health and reduce suicide rates among adolescents.
Cognitive Learning Theory
Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) posits that the individual, environment, and behavior have a reciprocal relationship whereby the individual can influence or become influenced by the environment. A major component of the theory is that people learn through observations. Through observation, an individual acquires information from his/her environment and imitates the models. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among children and adolescents. To many teenagers, these problems appear to be the solution to their problems. Suicide and depression among teenagers are preventable and treatable.
The best intervention for suicide centered on social cognitive theory is to change the environment to alter the teenagers’ behavior. The intervention entails creating an environment that offers alternative means to solve their issues that would have likely led to suicide ideation. Therefore, instituting programs that focus on providing ways to treat depression. By saturating the environment with information on treating and preventing depression, suicide ideation obscures. By saturating the immediate environment to teenagers with information on how to navigate difficult situations, the environment leads teenagers to make other choices when confronted with difficult situations. Rather than teenagers opting for suicide, they start taking different and better actions when faced with difficult situations. Such programs include encouraging teenagers to talk about their issues with their teachers, parents, pastors, etc. interventions based on the principles of social cognitive theory would have forums. It is where teenagers discuss their issues openly with either their parents, teachers, etc. these interventions do not necessarily need to be school-based or church-based. They can be depicted through media (including social media) and or included in their syllabus.
Social Constructivism Theory
The process leading to suicide ideation can be explained by social constructivist theory, and interventions based on its principles can offer ways to tackle the menace affecting teenagers. First, as social constructivists believe, ideas undergo two steps; first at the social level and then at the individual level CITATION Mat16 \l 1033 (Lynch, 2016). Suicide also seems to take form similarly, first, at the social level where it is familiarized to the individual and secondly where the individual possesses the idea. Without the first level, where the idea is first introduced to the individual, suicide ideation would not mate...