Suicidal research paper. Impact of Social Media on Suicidal Thoughts among Youths and Teens

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Impact of Social Media on Suicidal Thoughts among Youths and Teens
Background
The social science issue I am dealing with is suicide. For this assignment, I assume the professional role of a social scientist. My research question is; what kind of thoughts and conversations most of these victims or patients think or talk about as they are undergoing the issue?  The following issue-specific terms and concepts will inform my research; the social reality, globalization, social groups, social ontology, and social epistemology. These terms form the basis of studying suicide among youths and teens as a social issue. 
In recent times, suicide has been even more talked about, and more suicide cases are recorded. I believe social media, in some way, has contributed to the increase in suicide rates; not just the awareness it helps in creating, but also encouraging it. Most young teenagers and even adults engage in social media more than they did four years ago. This means that if the media is continually bringing up the news of suicide incidents and people who also had the suicidal thoughts, this is a sign of encouragement for suicide. Although various studies have been conducted on such causes of suicidal thoughts as physical abuse, there is limited research on how social media encourages suicide and the thoughts and conversations that individuals have as they undergo suicidal thoughts. 
Annotated Bibliography
Hardt, Sidor, Nickel, Kappis, Petrak, and Egle (2008) carried a study sought to establish the relationship between physical abuse at childhood and suicidal attempts. The researchers examined a sample consisting of 575 general practitioners and patients using a structured review. Seventeen per cent of the participants confessed attempting suicide previously. In this study, the researchers used a methodological approach that was effective in collecting crucial data that supports the hypotheses formulated for the current research. The study showed suicide is a social issue that is associated with social behaviours such as physical abuse among teens. The study is essential to the current research as it supports suicide as a social issue on the rise, thus the need for more research. For instance, it shows that social media has mostly been ignored in past research despite being a primary motivator of suicide and suicidal thoughts among youths and teens. 
King, Eisenberg, Zheng, Czyz, Kramer, Horwitz, and Chermack (2015) also researched physical abuse and suicide attempts. The study aimed to establish the impact of online intervention on students at the risk of suicide. The resulted showed that around 29% of the students were ready to engage in seek help on suicidal thoughts. Some of the ways that they cited could assist them included talking to friends, talking to the family, or seeking medical assistance from a professional. Additionally, less stigmatized students were more willing to seek mental health treatment. The success of this study is that it is unique from those considered so far. Unlike the rest, it identifies ways through which physically abused victims can be assisted in recovering from the effects of physical abuse such as suicide attempts. The study also contributes to the feasibility of the current research since it shows that physical abuse can lead to behavioural problems. The study identifies stigmatization as one of such.
McKinnon, Gariépy, Sentenac, and Elgar's (2016) study also supports the basis of the current research that suicide accounts for approximately 6% of deaths among youths. The study also establishes that low-income countries have more cases of suicide than high-income countries. This supports the fact that suicide is a social issue as it is associated with social behaviours, and has social impacts on youths and teens, and the entire society. However, the major weakness of this study is that it fails to establish the relationship between suicide and physical abuse. The researchers failed to identify the relationship between income and the rate of physical abuse and suicide. As such, this study has little contribution to the current research due to the errors in methodology and analysis by the researchers. It, however, shows some of the mistakes that need be avoided in the present study. 
Klonsky and Olino's (2008) study showed that the psychiatric problems that adolescents develop due to suicide attempts differ from one individual to another. The researchers used a latent class analysis in the identification of the various subgroups of self-injuries. Two hundred five young adults had at least one non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behaviour. The study showed that some of the common self-injurers included suicide, anxiety, depression, and borderline personality disorder. Some of the participants had more than a single behavioural problem. However, the study established that the highest number had suffered high anxiety, with most developing thoughts of committing suicide. Such findings are also crucial to the current study as they show suicide as a social issue that is on the rise. This is of interest to researchers since it motivates them to conduct further research on the factors contributing to an increase in suicide cases. However, the study fails to identify ways of curbing these NSSI behaviours and reducing the likelihood of suicide and suicide attempts among physically abused victims.
Swogger conducted another vital study related to the current research, You, Cashman-Brown, and Conner (2011). The study used a population sample of 266 criminal offenders whose age ranged from 18 to 62. They examined how physical abuse, aggression, and suicide attempts were related and established attack as a primary mediator of the relationship between suicide attempts and physical abuse. The independent variables in this study are social factors; physical violence and aggression. The research shows ho...