Assessing Situations Which Lead To Suicidal Behaviors Among Adolescents (Research Paper Sample)

Assessing situations which lead to suicidal behaviors among adolescents
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Assessing situations which lead to suicidal behaviors among adolescents
Abstract
Suicidal behaviors are signs showing that an individual is likely to commit suicide. Suicide among adolescents is prevalence in the United States with suicide being ranked third among the leading cause of death in adolescents. Suicidal behaviors take different forms such as suicidal threats, suicidal ideation, self-cutting, gestures and interrupted suicide attempts. Adolescent use these set of behaviors among others in different situations. The suicidal behaviors are informed by Family factors, alcohol and drug abuse and suicide contagion among others that have causational relationship with cognitive variables such anxiety, hopelessness, depression, psychosomoatic symptoms, anger, and suicidal contemplation.
Introduction
Suicidal behaviors are signs that show that an individual could commit suicide. Suicidal behaviors results from ideas and thoughts that revolve around death. Indeed, suicide is committed from one’s thought. Generally, people always think of something before doing it. The thinking of people is informed by various situations. Therefore, there are several situations that make an adolescent to develop suicidal behaviors. Family factors, Alcohol and Drugs abuse and, suicide contagion are the essential risk factors (situations) that cause suicidal behaviors among adolescents.
Epidemiology of suicidal behaviors
Suicidal behavior comprise of a set of heterogeneous and non-continuous spectra of behaviors like suicidal threats, suicidal ideation, self-cutting, gestures, interrupted suicide attempts, lethal (low) suicide attempts and, almost fatal suicide attempts (Amitai & Apter, 2012, p.986). This means that suicidal behaviors take different forms and their intensity varies depending on the form. In terms of prevalence, there has been a worrying statistics about suicide among adolescent in the United States and the entire Europe. According to Consol et al (2013), suicide ranks third among the leading causes of death in young adults and adolescents- Americans aged 15–24-year-olds- in the United States. It is also ranks second among the leading causes of death in European countries’ young adults and adolescents (p.2).
Suicidal behaviors are the main causes of adolescent psychiatric hospitalizations in the United States. In the United States, the adolescents death rates due to suicide is 6.9 in every 100,000 adolescents aged 15-19 years old (Consol et al., 2013, p.2). The widespread in adolescent suicide and suicidal behaviors has produced heavy burden on the U.S healthcare system. This is because; the federal and state governments and other concerned agencies have to develop ways of reducing suicidal behaviors which are the recipe for suicide.
Situations causing suicidal behaviors among adolescents
The identified situations that cause suicidal behaviors among adolescents are: Family factors, Alcohol and Drugs and, Suicide Contagion. Woods et al. (1991) observed that there is causational relationship between attitudes and beliefs and; cognitive variables such as: anxiety, hopelessness, depression, psychosomoatic symptoms, anger, and suicidal contemplation (p.216). This indicates that attitudes and beliefs cause cognitive variables that eventually lead to suicidal behaviors.
1 Family factors
There are different associated or predictive factors that cause suicidal behaviors within the family context. According to Consol et al., (2013), poor family environment where there is low satisfaction of the adolescents with family support, lack of leisure time, poor communication in the family and, low potential parental monitoring are essential factors that could cause suicidal behaviors. Low family support, poor attachment between parent and the child, parental adjustment problems and low family cohesion are other factors that could cause suicidal behaviors (p.2).
Research has also pointed out that family environment is a general predictor of suicidal behaviors in adolescents. Factors such as family discord, history within the family of suicidal behavior, parental psychopathology, maltreatment and parental loss due to death are some causes of suicidal behaviors (Bridge et al, 2006). When an adolescent lose his/her parent due to death, he/she, the adolescent could miss the parent dearly which might make him/her feel stressed which can eventually lead to depression and later psychiatric disorder because the person who loved him/her is no more. This makes him/her to feel not comfortable living hence he/she can develop suicidal behaviors.
Amitai & Apter (2012) added that, there is strong evidence linking suicidal behavior and family. Therefore, suicidal behavior if basically familial and genetic hence it is transmitted to members of the family irrespective of psychiatric disorder. It can also be transmitted through environmental routes like intergenerational family adversity and imitation (p.988). This means that, adolescent can copy suicidal behaviors, attempts or acts of others who had done so before. Additionally, adolescent can also follow on the adversities that have been experienced in the family over the past generations and have been inherited. So an adolescent might develop suicidal behaviors hoping to evade those intergenerational family adversities.
Consol et al., (2013) conducted a study about the association between family factors, depression and suicidal behaviors among adolescents aged 17 years old. The sampled participants were 31,429 where 50.3% participants were boys and 49.7% were girls. The result of the study found that depression prevalence was 4.5% among adolescents. The result also showed that negative relationship with either of the parents or both and, when parents are living together in a negative relationship is greatly associated with suicidal behaviors/risks and/or depression (p.9). Therefore, relationship between parents and the children has significant effect on suicidal behavior of the adolescents. Poor relationship between parent(s) and the child increases the chances of suicidal behavior among adolescents.
2 Alcohol and Drugs abuse
Alcohol abuse is associated with the increased risk of suicidal deaths and suicidal behaviors among adolescents. A research study by Consol et al., (2013) found that substance abuse such as marijuana, tobacco and, alcohol and marijuana significantly increase the risks of suicidal behaviors among the adolescents suffering from depression (p.8). People always abuse alcohol for several reasons. However, according to Brady (2006), alcohol abuse lowers people’s self-esteem which eventually increase the suicidal risk through negative life events like work problem, divorce, social isolation and loss of social network. Social isolation can lead to loneliness that can eventually cause depression. This problem can lead to other mental problem and deep thinking about committing suicide.
Suicide behaviors are common among the people with alcohol use disorders. These disorders are: co-morbid psychiatric disorders, anxiety and psychiatric disorder. Heavy alcohol consumers are 5 times more likely to commit suicide compared to social drinkers. Additionally, alcohol abuse is associated with the state of alcoholic intoxication that could cause self-inflicted injuries by increasing impulsivity and, promoting feelings and thoughts of hopelessness while at the same time removing the inhibiting barriers to self-inflicted injuries (Pompili et al, 2010).
Additionally, cognitive constriction- the narrow attention that reduces one’s perception to finding immediate solution or the option of committing suicide- is often observed before the suicide attempt. Alcohol cause cognitive constriction via alcohol myopia. This has been documented in previous researches showing that the inhibition conflict- comparing pros and cons and finding the alternative solutions- mediates the relationship between social behavior and intoxication. There is vulnerability to neurotoxic impacts of alcohol among adolescents. Substance abuse by adolescents has adverse effects on their executive functioning and brain development. In fact abuse of alcohol and other substances can induce some mood disorders and then remitted after a given period of time of abstinence. Alcohol withdrawal is also associated with affective disturbance (Pompili et al, 2010). All these effects of on mental cognition of adolescent can alter the way they perceive things and their life. Alcohol and substance abuse can alter the moods and behaviors of adolescents that can eventually lead to development of suicidal behaviors.
Aseltine et al (2009) conducted a study about the relationship between self-reported suicide attempts and episodic drinking (HED) involving 32,217 adolescent students aged 11-19 years old from 225 schools. The research found that there was a significant relationship between HED and self-reported suicide attempts. This relationship was stronger among adolescents aged 13 years old and below. Additionally, adolescents aged 13 years and below who reported HED episodes during the past year prior to the study had about 2.6 times higher likelihood of reporting attempted suicide compared to those who did not report HED. In contrary, adolescents aged 18 years and above who reported HED episode were only 1.2 time more likely to report attempted suicide than those who did not report HED. Therefore, from these findings, it is clear that heavy episodic drinking is a suicidal behavior risk factor in young adolescents, beyond depressive symptoms risk (p.262). Basically, alcohol abuse among adolescents increases their chances of developing suicidal behavior...