Teenage Suicide Summary Essay

Teenage Suicide
Teenage Suicide
Suicide is among the leading causes of death to children, adolescents and teenagers in the world. In particular, suicide among teenagers in school can be attributed to many factors, including self-esteem and self-doubt issues, overwhelming pressure to excel in school, disappointment and grief caused by the loss of a loved one. Suicidal feelings may also be linked to certain mental health disorders, for example, depression.
Diagnosis of these disorders is a critical step in treating the diseases. For example, hotlines have been put in place, which provides immediate help to provide direct assistance and emotional support for people who are struggling with recurring suicidal thoughts and feelings. These hotlines and support services are run mainly by volunteers and encourage those dealing with depressive and suicidal feelings to call and confidentially share their stories to prevent cases of suicide. Additionally, suicidal people are encouraged to seek professional help, for example, mental health practitioners who work with the patients to identify specific strategies tailored to the individual to help them deal with their situations. These people are also encouraged to reach out to close friends and respective family members, church ministers, teachers and people of authority in their communities. This paper will review past studies and statistics on suicide, analyze the risk factors that increase the chances of a suicide occurring, provide an overview of the best practices that are in place to combat the problem, and identify research and knowledge gaps in the field, proposing the studies and research methods that should be implemented.
Prevention Science
While the importance of these remedial solutions to address the problem of teenage suicide in the community cannot be overstated, scientists have emphasized the efficiency of using preventative measures as a means of tackling these issues. Prevention science is the scientific process of moderating a particular human dysfunction before it occurs. This process aims to address the potential factors, also called risk factors, that predispose an individual to specific dysfunctions rather than addressing the problem once it has already occurred (Vera, 2013). Apart from stopping an event from happening, the definition of prevention has been broadened to include; delaying the occurrence of an event, reducing the effect of a problem, creating awareness and reinforcing knowledge on the behaviours that lead to physical, emotional and mental well-being, and furthering governmental and institutional policies that enhance physical, emotional and mental well-being (Romano & Hage, 2000). According to Cumming (1968), two main strategies are involved in preventing mental health issues: one being the research about what causes the mental health problem and the methods to eliminate it. The second strategy is to distinguish populations immune to these mental health problems and subsequently shape different populations to match the ideal one.
Past Studies and Vital Statistics
Numerous studies have been undertaken to determine the causes of suicide and hypothesize probable preventative measures that should be followed to reduce teenage deaths by suicide. According to data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the world loses more than 800 000 people per annum due to suicide (WHO, 2019). Many more cases go unrecorded of people who attempt to commit suicide by various methods, such as self-harming individuals. Bird and Faulkner (2000) extend their research to self-harm, self-injury and attempted suicide. They acknowledge the distinction between deliberate self-harm and non-deliberate self-harm and note the strong relationship between self-harm, attempted suicide and actual suicide (Bird & Faulkner, 2000). WHO categorizes self-harm and previous suicide attempts as the leading risk factors for suicide (WHO, 2019). Approximately 1 per cent of individuals who have attempted to kill themselves but failed will take their life within a year since the attempt. 4 per cent of these individuals try it again within the few coming years (Bird & Faulkner, 2000). Most of the people who end up committing suicide have, at some point in their life, had self-harming thoughts and have attempted it before.
Teenagers in school are among the highly ranked people who are most affected by suicide cases. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (CDC, 2018), suicide was the second leading cause of death for individuals ranging from the ages of 10 to 24 with a total of 14 827 cases reported per 100 000 of the population of the United States in 2018. These figures in teenage deaths by suicide have steadily risen over the years, with more and more cases reported each year. According to WHO, the mean suicide rate for teenagers was 7.4 cases reported per 100 000 of the population. These results show that suicide rates have steadily increased with time, with an exponential year reported after 2006.
Past statistics show that males are more predisposed to suicidal attempts and actual suicide in a group of teenagers than females. This is clearly illustrated by a report from Hedegaard et al. (2020), where the cases of suicide by men was 22.8 per 100 000 of the population, while the rate for females stood at 6.2 cases per 100 000 of the population. This shows that the rate of suicides in males is approximately 3.5 times higher than that in females.
A study by Balis and Postolache (2008) sought to categorize further the difference in suicide rates in school-going teenagers from different ethnic backgrounds. The study analyzed suicide data from a range of teenagers from different ethnicities ranging from African-Americans, Asian, Caucasian, Latino, Native Americans and Native Hawaiian teenagers. The results showed that Caucasians were more likely to commit suicide in the US than any other ethnic group. However, the rates of suicide cases in different ethnic groups like African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asians were steadily rising (Balis & Postolache, 2008). Walker (2020) attributes racism as one of the major risk factors that affect ethnic minorities in schools, particularly for African American teenagers. She states that teenagers from ethnic minorities find it hard to navigate cultural contexts and fit in, making them more predisposed to thoughts and attempts at suicide (Walker, 2020).
Risk Factors
Goldsmith et al. (2002) emphasize the need for a vast understanding of risk factors and their influences. The research of risk factors is helpful as it helps scientists and other involved bodies in applying preventative measures by understanding the predisposing factors that increase the likelihood of suicide. Numerous factors increase the chances of suicide among school-going teenagers.
The most significant risk factor for suicide among all ages is mental health disorders, which is particularly rampant in school-going teenagers. According to Bradvik (2018), about 90 per cent of all people who took their own lives have been affected by psychological and mental illnesses. He goes on to propose that the risk due to mental disease is multifactorial. In other terms, what drives the individual to suicide is not only the illness, but a further predisposing factor has to exist, which causes the patient to incline towards feelings of suicidal attempts (Bradvik, 2018). Scientists have in the past, tried to explain the relationship between depression and suicidal thoughts. Depression and feelings of inadequacy are directly proportional to the number of cases observed and recorded. Handley et al. (2018) studied a sample of 1051 patients, 361 of whom were reported to be dealing with depression at some point in their lives. Of these depressed individuals, approximately half of them reported inclinations and thoughts on suicide and self-harm, while 15 per cent of the individuals admitted to having attempted suicide in their pasts (Handley et al., 2018). This study, paired with others, proves how huge a factor depression is in suicide ideation and cases.
Research has also proven that teenagers addicted to drug and substance abuse are more susceptible to suicidal ideas and attempts. Toxicology tests on victims of suicide list the most common drugs in descending order as follows; alcohol, which accounts for 70 per cent of suicides, benzodiazepines, opiates, marijuana, cocaine and amphetamines (Kaliszewski, 2019). There is a considerable correlation between drug usage and mental health illnesses. Most teenagers who struggle with suicidal thoughts and feelings of depression turn to drugs as a getaway from the real issues they experience instead of dealing with their problems directly. They misguidedly turn to drugs to escape the emotional and mental pain, but the drugs achieve the opposite effects from what they intend. The drugs magnify the intensity of their depression and emotional inadequacies, leading to increased feelings of suicide and attempts (Kaliszewski, 2019).
In the past, there have been major tragic reports of teenage deaths that are linked in some way to bullying activities. These activities, which lead to feelings of inadequacy and helplessness on the victim’s part, may lead to serious mental health issues which, if not addressed immediately and effectively, may lead the victim to suicide. The National Centre for Injury Prevention and Control (CDC, 2014) noted that even teenagers who witness a bullying activity and are not themselves directly involved in the bullying also reported greater feelings of helplessness and inadequate support from their parents and teachers and may lead the observers down the same path. Bullying causes a myriad of adverse outcomes for both the bully and the victim, including; depression, violence in the form of physical or sexual aggressiveness, lacking social connections and may even lead to poor performance in school. Information from the US Department of Health and Human Services states that aggression and bullying stem from power positions. This kind of power may be directed to teenagers in school who are from ethnically vulnerable or marginalized ethnic groups. Pepler et al. (2006) note that students from ethnic minority groups experience more victimization and bullying than those from the ethnic majorities. Consequently, these students from marginalized groups are more likely to be bullies themselves or develop depression and suicidal thoughts and feelings to curb this problem.
A study by Lopez-Castroman et al. (2013) also attempted to find the link between early childhood sexual abuse and the rate of suicides in teenagers. Dube et al. (2001) found that teenagers who experience major traumatic events in their childhood, for example, physical and sexual abuse, were up to five times more likely to have attempted suicide in their lives. Such kinds of human abuse, primarily when it occurs at the early stages of an individual’s life, may have life-long adverse outcomes and heighten the risk of developing depression and feelings of worthlessness, leading to the individual ultimately committing suicide. A study by Roy and Janal (2006) found that there were higher cases of childhood trauma in females than in males and, as a result, greater frequency of suicidal attempts and ideas in girls than in boys. Therefore, females are at a higher risk of committing suicide due to past sexual and physical abuse, which can be explai...