ADOLESCENT SUICIDE.   Term Paper ID:23681 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Focuses on Canada. Examines incidence, demographics, psychological causes, theories (social, conflict, feminist), self-image, family & gender issues.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Focuses on Canada. Examines incidence, demographics, psychological causes, theories (social, conflict, feminist), self-image, family & gender issues. Paper Introduction: ADOLESCENT SUICIDE IN CANADA Introduction The purpose of this study is to examine the current literature on adolescent suicide in Canada. The paper begins with a delineation of the general scope of the problem; this is followed by an exploration of demographic and psychosocial variables postulated as causal or contributive factors to the problem of adolescent suicide. The third section of the paper places the problem in context by examining the conservative, conflict and feminist models of causative and contributive factors. The final section of the paper presents a series of conclusions about adolescent suicide in Canada which were formulated on the basis of the reviewed material. Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. It was also observed that the Beck Depression Inventory and theSuicide Probability Scale were highly correlated. & Groze, V.K. Suicide in Canada: Updateof the report of the Task Force on Suicide in Canada. Suicide andLife-Threatening Behavior, 25(2), 1995: 241-252. Trovato tested Durkheim's hypothesis that suicide varies inverselywith the extent of social integration in family, religious, political, andeconomic life by examining for relationships between family integration,religious integration, and economic anomie (as measured by unemployment) onyoung Canadians' (aged 15-29 years) using suicide rate data for 1971 and1981.[2 ] According to Trovato, findings provided confirmation for thehypothesis that religious detachment among the young was associated withincreased proneness to commit suicide. Problemsolving, stress, and coping in adolescent suicide attempts. Conclusions Several conclusions may be formulated on the basis of the reviewedresearch. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51(2),1995: 173-181. Pagliaro. Attachment organizationand history of suicidal behavior in clinical adolescents. It is further recommended that any developedinterventions for reducing risk involve parents or legal guardians.[11] The extent to which depression places adolescents at risk for suicidewas examined by Cappelli, Clulow, Goodman and Davidson who examined the six-month prevalence of depression and suicidal probability among new referralsto an adolescent health clinic.[12] Subjects in the study were 1 4Canadian adolescents (aged 13-18 years), all of whom completed the BeckDepression Inventory and the Suicide Probability Scale and were categorizedaccording to the psychological and/or physical nature of their presentingproblem.[13] Data showed that 59 percent of subjects' scores on the BDI documentedthem as depressed, with 21 percent falling in the moderate range and 21percent falling within the severe range of depression. Problemsolving, stress, and coping in adolescent suicide attempts. Suicide And Life-Threatening Behavior, 23,1993: 366-373. Suicidality amongadolescent Alberta Indians. [12]M. Gartrell, G.K. (New York, Free Press, 1951). The changing suicide pattern in Canadianadolescents and youth, compared to their American counterparts.Adolescence, 3 (119), 1995: 539-547. (Doctoral Dissertation, Ohio StateUniversity) Dissertation Abstracts International, 55(3-A), p. At the larger social level, conflicts are said to result becausethings like power, wealth and prestige are not available to everyone.However, at the more personal level, conflict is regarded by theorists asthe struggle that occurs day after day as people try to maintain andimprove their positions in life. Forexample, in a study of the effects of family disruption on suicidality inCanadian adolescents, Kurtz and Derevensky concluded that parental conflictand divorce may increase psychological vulnerability duringadolescence.[17] It was also noted that suicidal behavior can be a concomitant ofprolonged and progressive family disruption, inadequate familyrelationships, and ineffective parent-child interactions. Matas and K. de Man and C.P. Specifically, it was observedthat religious detachment among the young was associated with increasedproneness to commit suicide. Durkheim. A feminist theoretical framework guided the research. Subjects in thestudy were seven young adult women age 19-32, who were single and collegeeducated with no children. Canadian Journalof School Psychology, 9(2), 1993: 2 4-216. Ritzer, G. Normative evaluations of suicide and death: A cross-generational study. Stress and coping in adolescents: Theeffects of family configuration and environment on suicidality. Catholic Social Services, 39(5), 1994: 5 4-513. First, it can be concluded that adolescent suicide is a growingproblem in Canada and that high risk groups include both Indians, gay,lesbian and bisexual teens, and females. young against old, male againstfemale, etc. Approximately 22percent of the sample demonstrated significant suicidal probability andmoderate to severe levels of depression. [17]L. Boldt reports that another factor contributing to youth suicide isattitude change across generations.[18] In his study, two intrafamilialgenerations were investigated to gain a better understanding of possiblecausal factors underlying increasing suicide rates among the young. It was also recommended that futureresearch investigate a number of other risk factors including relationaldissatisfaction, familial suicide attempts, and abuse. Leduc. Findings were said to indicate that dependency needs did notsignificantly differentiate suicide attempters from nonattempters.Attempters, however, did report both a smaller social network and fewerintimate relationships than nonattempters, as well as less satisfactionwith these relationships. & Davidson, S.I.Identifying depressed and suicidal adolescents in a teen health clinic.Canadian Journal of Adolescent Health, 16(1), 1995: 64-7 . Suicidal ideation in high school students:Depression and other correlates. Scope of the Problem Data regarding the scope of adolescent suicide in Canada have beencompiled by the National Task Force on Suicide.[1] According to the TaskForce report, from 1989 to 1991, suicide was the second leading cause ofdeath (after car accidents) for Canadians aged 15 and 19 years. as in the case of the sacrificial death of a buddhist monk as aprotest against some element of the social order). Moreover, depending upon a host ofvariables, conflict theorists hold that the consequences of conflict caneither be social problems such as suicide or they can actually be positive. [6]Ibid. & Leduc, C.P. Groze. Pagliaro, L.A. Lester. Family factors have also been found to be related to suicide. Interviews were transcribed andreviewed by participants during a second interview. [7]Lennaars and Lester, p. Suicide andLife-Threatening Behavior, 25(2), 1995: 241-252.----------------------- [1]National Task Force on Suicide in Canada. The dependency needs and perceivedavailability and adequacy of relationships in female adolescent suicideattempters. A third conclusion of the study is that there have been variousmodels proposed to explain adolescent suicide. [14]E. & Derevensky, J.L. It was concluded that more research was requiredto establish whether dependency needs were indeed causally related to thefemale adolescents' suicide attempts. (Doctoral Dissertation, Ohio StateUniversity) Dissertation Abstracts International, 55(3-A), p. Derevensky. Another explanative model of adolescent suicide is that of conflicttheory. West. Boldt, M. According to Wilson et al., the results of the study showed that thesuicidal group did not evidence either rigid thinking or deficits in theability to generate solutions to standardized interpersonal problems.[24]However, the suicidal group did report recent histories of more severe lifestress and showed inaccurate appraisal of the extent to which stressfulevents could be controlled. [26]Hodge, D.M. SecondInternational Conference for the Child of the Organization for theProtection of Children's Rights (1992, Montreal, Canada). [4]Ibid. Normative evaluations of suicide and death: A cross-generational study. A Durkheimian analysis of youth suicide: Canada, 1971and 1981. A comprehensive study of the psychosocial correlates of adolescentsuicide was conducted by de Man and Leduc who used questionnaire dataobtained from 246 English-Canadian high school students to examine therelationship between suicidal ideation and selected personal variables,stress, and social support.[16] Associations were found between suicidalideation and the variables of gender, self-esteem, locus of control,depression, drug use, stress, perception of health, family status, academicperformance, social support, and anomie. Staley, M. Suicidal ideation in high schoolstudents: Depression and other correlates. & Hildahl, K. & Derksen, L. The 33.9 percent of young people who had neither made a suicideattempt nor thought about it possessed internal and external qualities thatenabled them to cope well in the face of discrimination, loneliness, andisolation. [1 ]Pagliaro, p.191. [25]B.J. [22]Ibid. Stelzer, J.N. The economic anomie thesis received no support. Teens with higher-functioning support systems were able to usethose systems instead of considering suicide. AAD94-2 966) Kurtz, L. Canadian Journalof School Psychology, 9(2), 1993: 2 4-216. Adolescent depression and suicide: A review andanalysis of the current literature. Risk factors for suicide among gay,lesbian, and bisexual youths. Males commonly used more lethal methods thanfemale. [8]Ibid. The changing suicide pattern inCanadian adolescents and youth, compared to their American counterparts.Adolescence, 3 (119), 1995: 539-547. [5]A.A. [2]J.W. Sigurdson, D. [15]K.S. Also, suicidal adolescents were more likely toidentify maladaptive behaviors as ways of coping. [18]M. In this regard,Pagliaro reports that depression was the most frequently reported riskfactor in adolescent suicide from 199 to 1995.[1 ] Noting that clinical interview is the best available method forassessment of suicide risk, Pagliaro recommends that school teachers,counselors and/or psychologists working with student groups to begin toidentify teens as at risk by conducting interviews with them in which theylook for clues to depression. 2), which was said to suggest that cognitive disorganizationmay be an important variable mediating between traumatic experience andsuicidal behavior. Wilson, J. Preoccupied attachment, and unresolved-disorganized attachment wasassociated with the case group, whereas dismissing attachment wasassociated with the comparison group. Sociological theory (New York, McGraw-Hill, 1992). Hildahl. Psychosocial Causes and Correlates Several studies have attempted to determine psychosocial causes andcorrelates of adolescent suicide. Suicide may serve as a lasteffort to communicate with family members. Conflicts are said to involvea broad range of groups or interests, e.g. Ritzer. The adolescentcan thus experience diminished coping resources and feelings of isolation,loss, and hostility toward family members. Bergman and M.J. Proctor, C.D. Young adult women and the social construction ofdepression: A qualitative study. (Canada: MentalHealth Division Health Services Directorate, Health Programs and Services,1994). Leenaars, A.A. Hodge stated that the essence of the feminist perspective, whichfocuses on the higher attempted suicide rates of females (both adults andadolescents) is that women are more likely to be depressed because theetiology of women's and men's depression differs given their differentrealities.[26] In an effort to more thoroughly understand this phenomenon,Hodge conducted a study to determine what in the daily lives of womencauses so many of them to become depressed.[27] Methods involving having women talk about and describe theirdepression as it manifests itself in their daily lives, and to discuss whatthey perceived to be the source of their depression. The dependency needs and perceivedavailability and adequacy of relationships in female adolescent suicideattempters. Adam, A.E Sheldon-Keller and M. Attachment organizationand history of suicidal behavior in clinical adolescents. Theoretical Models Perhaps one of the best known models of suicide is that proposed byFrench sociologist Emile Durkheim who stated that differences in suiciderates were associated with the impact of social forces.[19] In thisregard, Durkheim postulated that there were three categories of suicide:egoistic, altruistic and anomic. 739.(Microfilm Order No. Sigurdson, Staley, Matas and Hildahl established an information baseabout the nature and cause of youth suicide in Canada by examining medicalexaminers' files for 2 4 youths (aged 24 years or less) who had committedsuicide.[14] A high ratio of male to female suicide was found. The final section of the paper presents a series ofconclusions about adolescent suicide in Canada which were formulated on thebasis of the reviewed material. These include:depression, alcohol abuse, family disruption, attachment trauma, low self-esteem, external locus of control, drug use, stress, perception of health,family status, academic performance, and low levels of social support. [9]C.D. It was also observed that female adolescents and older adolescentswere significantly more likely than other adolescents to be in the casegroup. The prevalence ofdepression was found to be greatest in subjects with both physical andpsychological complaints. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 19(4), 1995: 517-531. Questionnaire and interview data obtained from 114twelfth graders and their parents in a medium-size Canadian city supportedthe hypothesis that the youthful generation holds more "accepting"attitudes than their parents. Suicide in Canada: Updateof the report of the Task Force on Suicide in Canada. Bettridge and O.E. In such cases, conflict is said to act as an integrative acting as a forcethat contributes to order and stability---this happening when people ofcommon interests join together to seek gains that will benefit them all. & Lester, D. 539. However, theystate that recent work on female adolescence suggests that achievinggreater interdependency within relationships rather than increasedindependence from them is an important goal for nonclinical nonsuicidalfemale adolescents. Journal ofConsulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(2), 1996: 264-272. Trovato, F. The paper begins with a delineation of thegeneral scope of the problem; this is followed by an exploration ofdemographic and psychosocial variables postulated as causal or contributivefactors to the problem of adolescent suicide. Omega, 13(2), 1982-1983: 145-157. Aboriginals had a suicide rate 1 times higher than that of non-aboriginals as well as more histories of alcohol abuse, depression, andprior suicide attempts. The comparison group comprised 64 adolescents whohad never experienced suicidal ideation or behaviors; the case groupincluded 69 adolescents with histories of suicidal behavior (n = 53) andsevere suicidal ideation (n = 16). Psychology of Women Quarterly, 19(4), 1995: 517-531. [24]Ibid. Qualitative findings of the study were said to indicate that forthese young women, issues of violence in their lives, the sense ofobligation and responsibility toward others, and the lack of control overtheir environment and others were major contributors to their depression.In addition, these women felt the need to force themselves to overcome theparalysis of their depression, put up a facade to be happy, and deal withphysical symptoms from their depression. Davidson.Identifying depressed and suicidal adolescents in a teen health clinic.Canadian Journal of Adolescent Health, 16(1), 1995: 64-7 . On the other hand, suicidal probability and acombination of depression and suicidal probability were most prevalent insubjects with only psychological complaints. Canadian Journal of School Psychology,11(2), 1995: 191-2 1. Somewhat supportive of conflict theory is a study conducted byWilson, Stelzer, Bergman and Kral who evaluated adolescent suicide inrelation to problem solving ability, stress and coping.[23] Subjectsconsisted of 4 adolescents (14-17 years old), 2 of whom had made suicidalattempts and 2 of whom were nonpsychiatric controls. [2 ]F. BIBLIOGRAPHY Adam, K.S., Sheldon-Keller, A.E. The effect of family dissolution waspositive and significant for both young men and women in 1981 but not in1971, which was said to partially confirm the family integrationexplanation of suicide. It washypothesized that since cultural and subcultural normative evaluations ofsuicide and death represent important variables in an individual's decisionto choose the suicidal option, the reported increase in youth suicide ratesmay be a function of more "accepting" attitudes by today's youth towardsuicide and death. ADOLESCENT SUICIDE IN CANADA Introduction The purpose of this study is to examine the current literature onadolescent suicide in Canada. SecondInternational Conference for the Child of the Organization for theProtection of Children's Rights (1992, Montreal, Canada). Second, it can be concluded that there are a number of psychosocialcauses and correlates to adolescent suicide in Canada. [19]E. & Kral, M.J. In accordance with definitions provided in the scoring system,86 percent of case and 78 percent of comparison adolescents in psychiatrictreatment had experienced attachment-related trauma. Jarvis and L. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 39(8), 1994:397-4 3. Young people were given the Adolescent Health Questionnaire, whichassessed family issues, social environment, and self-perceptions. Cappelli, M., Clulow, M.K., Goodman, J.T. A five yearreview of youth suicide in Manitoba. Findingsof the study indicated that 4 .3 percent of the teens had attemptedsuicide, and 25.8 percent had seriously considered suicide. Multiple regression analysis identified depression and alcohol use asbest individual predictors among these variables. Additional data wereprovided by observational notes, a reflexive journal, and pamphlets ondepression. [21]G. A five year reviewof youth suicide in Manitoba. Sigurdson, E., Staley, D., Matas, M. Cappelli, M.K., Clulow, J.T., Goodman and S.I. In an effort to examine these views, Bettridge and Favreauinvestigated both dependency needs and the perceived availability andadequacy of relationships for samples of 21 female adolescents who hadattempted suicide and 21 female adolescents who had never attemptedsuicide. Hodge, D.M. Anomic suicide, on theother hand, was said to result when a person's relationship to society wasunbalanced in some dramatic fashion. (1994). Stress and coping in adolescents: Theeffects of family configuration and environment on suicidality. Proctor and V.K. Regarding this increase, the Task Force stated that adolescentsuicide is up from 3.3 per 1 , in 195 to 13.8 per 1 , in 1991, afigure that is higher than that of the United States; moreover, amongNative groups, these figures are even higher.[2] Pagliaro reports that attempted suicide is higher among femaleadolescents than among male adolescents; indeed, females attempt suicidefour times more frequently.[3] However, female adolescents have a highersurvival rate than male adolescents because they use less lethal means.[4] Leenaars and Lester explored social and economic correlates ofsuicide rates for those aged 15+ years in Canada over the period 1965-1985,using data from the WHO.[5] Rates of birth, divorce, marriage, andunemployment were obtained from the United Nations (annual).[6] Findings showed that in Canada, measures of domestic integration(divorce and birth rates) and economy (unemployment rate) predicted youthsuicide rates more successfully than they did adult suicide rates.[7] Inthe United States for the same period, there was less variation in thepredictors of suicide by age.[8] Proctor and Groze (1994) state that another group that may be at highrisk for adolescent suicide is gay, lesbian and bisexual youth.[9] Thisclaim is based on their study of 221 self-identified gay, lesbian, andbisexual youths (mean age 18.5 years) who attended youth groups across boththe United States and Canada. According to Ritzer, this model centers around social stressorsand people's varied responses to these stressors, one of which is, ofcourse, suicide.[21] Ritzer reports that, originally, the conflict modelwas based on Marxian notions that class conflict is an integral element ofsociety which itself is determined by economic organizations reflected insuch social features as religious dogmas, cultural values, personalbeliefs, institutional arrangements, and general class structures.[22] In its more current form, however, conflict theory holds thatconflict is a permanent feature of social life and that as a resultsocieties are in a state of constant change. One psychosocial factor that has beenrepeated associated with adolescent suicide is depression. (Canada: MentalHealth Division Health Services Directorate, Health Programs and Services,1994). Durkheim, E. (1994). Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 22(4), 1992: 413-427. Suicidality amongadolescent Alberta Indians. Canadian Journal of School Psychology,11(2), 1995: 191-2 1. Boldt. & West, M. The reportnoted that the adolescent suicide rate is of special concern because it hasgreatly increased over the last 4 years. Kral. Data were collected using interview methods. [11]Ibid. [16]A.F. Omega, 13(2), 1982-1983: 145-157. 739.(Microfilm Order No. Catholic Social Services, 39(5), 1994: 5 4-513. Women self-identified their depression andresponded to posted flyers. Adolescent depression and suicide: A review andanalysis of the current literature. [23]K.G. Bettridge, B.J. Young adult women and the social constructionof depression: A qualitative study. A Durkheimian analysis of youth suicide: Canada, 1971and 1981. Derksen. Kurtz and J.L. The feminist perspective of adolescent suicide has been discussed byBettridge and Favreau.[25] The authors note that traditional theoriesabout female adolescent suicide attempters viewed them as experiencingdifficulty in achieving adequate separation-individuation. National Task Force on Suicide in Canada. Non-scheduled, unstructured interviews wereconducted at a site of their choosing. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 39(8),1994: 397-4 3. Sociological theory (New York, McGraw-Hill, 1992). [3]L.A. Suicide. Pagliaro also recommends that a completeevaluation for additional risk factors be conducted and that teachers,counselors and psychologists specifically ask young people about suicideattempts and ideation. Suicide. Suicide And Life-Threatening Behavior, 23,1995: 366-373. Journal ofConsulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(2), 1996: 264-272. Attachment patterns were assessed using the Adult AttachmentInterview. [13]Ibid. Egoistic suicide was said to result from an inability to integrateoneself with society while altruistic suicide was motivated by the person'sdesire to further group goals or to achieve some greater or higher cause(e.g. It was further observed that depression was apparent in mostcases. Adam, Sheldon-Keller and West state that attachment trauma isanother psychosocial factor that explains at least some instances ofadolescent suicide in Canada.[15] This claim is based on the findings ofthe authors' case-comparison study of 133 Canadian adolescents inpsychiatric treatment. It was noted thatlapses in the monitoring of reasoning or discourse occurred during theattempted discussion of these events in 73 percent of adolescents in thecase group but in only 44 percent of adolescents in the clinical comparisongroup (p = . Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 22(4), 1992: 413-427. AAD94-2 966) [27]Ibid.----------------------- 1 About 5 percent of all youths studied were alcohol impaired at thetime of their suicide, and more males than females were facing criminalcharges. The third section of the paper places the problem in context byexamining the conservative, conflict and feminist models of causative andcontributive factors. Journal of Clinical Psychology,51(2), 1995: 173-181. Risk factors for suicide among gay,lesbian, and bisexual youths. Trovato. Gartrell, J.W., Jarvis, G.K. All of these models havesome degree of support suggesting that the most comprehensive explanationis probably a multivariate paradigm. Leenaars and D. Suicides falling into this categorymight include those of people who have lost their personal wealth such asin the Great Depression. (New York, Free Press, 1951). Semipartial correlationanalyses was said to show that removal of the effect of depression resultedin a loss of initially significant relationships between suicidal ideationand the other variables except for alcohol use, drug use, and healthsatisfaction. Wilson, K.G., Stelzer, J., Bergman, J.N. de Man, A.F. & Favreau, O.E. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.