Suicide is the third leading cause of death for persons ages 10 to 24 years old (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013). Risk factors for suicide, particularly interpersonal violence and alcohol use, are alarmingly prevalent in this population (Bagge & Sher, 2008; Wolford-Clevenger & P. Smith, 2014). However, understanding of the mechanisms through which these factors promote suicide risk in young adults is limited. Research that organizes these risk factors into a parsimonious understanding of the mechanisms underlying suicide is imperative to prevent this cause of death in such a vulnerable population. The interpersonal theory of suicide (Joiner, 2005; Van Orden et al., 2010) may serve as a framework to understand these risk …show more content…
In the first step, gender was associated with fearlessness about death (β = −.25, t = 5.10, p < .001), such that male gender was associated with increases in fearlessness about death. In the second step, gender (β = −.27, t = 5.40, p < .001) and alcohol use (β = −.10, t = −2.03, p = . 043) were associated with fearlessness about death, such that being male and lower alcohol use were associated with increases in fearlessness about death. However, the second step did not contribute significant variance beyond step 1 (p = .23). Further, these variables explained only a very small percentage of the variance in fearlessness about …show more content…
The few associations that emerged between suicide risk factors and ACS were weak and were accounted for by well-established risk factors for suicide: male gender and history of suicide attempts/NSSI. These findings converge with work highlighting male gender and history of suicidal behavior as key risk factors for the development of ACS but also provide tentative evidence against interpersonal violence and alcohol use as correlates of ACS. General physical violence perpetration was bivariately, positively correlated with fearlessness about death, which supports prior research showing that physically aggressive experiences, such as combat exposure, are associated with increases in fearlessness about death (Bryan & Cukrowicz, 2011). However, physical violence perpetration was not associated with increases in general fearlessness/pain tolerance, which is inconsistent with experimental evidence that physical aggression committed through violent video games increases physical pain tolerance (Teismann et al., 2014). While this is one of the few tests of a correlation between physical violence perpetration and fearlessness about death, this association was not present in multivariate models. Furthermore, this study cannot determine whether engagement in physical violence increases fearlessness about death or fearlessness about death
According to Durkheim, two types of suicide arise from the different levels social integration. One cause of suicide is extremely low social integration, which is referred to as egoistic suicide. Durkheim argues that this is the case because others give the individual’s life meaning, so without this support from the group the person may feel hopeless (Conley 188). The other type of suicide, altruistic suicide, reflects the opposite situation: when an individual is too socially integrated (Conley 189). This type of suicide occurs when members of a group or community become so totally engrossed by the group tha...
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) (2011). Facts and figures, international statistics. Retrieved November 2, 2011, from http://www.afsp.org/.
Wong, S., Zhou, B., Goebert, D., & Hishinuma, E. (2013). The risk of adolescent suicide
In a study released by Brown University, their psychology department shed some light on common myths and facts surrounded suicide. These m...
In the past decade, suicide rates have been on the incline; especially among men. According to the New York Times (2013), “From 1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 rose by nearly 30 percent… The suicid...
results. Accordingly, as the chemistry of suicide comes to light, there seems to be a
Joiner, Thomas E. et al. “Main Predictions of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior: Empirical Tests in Two Samples of Young Adults.” Journal of abnormal psychology 118.3 (2009): 634–646.
... the evidence changed in his later works). He has been widely criticised for his use of official statistics, which are open to interpretation and subject to possibly systematic misreporting, and therefore may not represent the true pattern or rates of suicide. It is also argued that he was confused between the distinction between egoism and anomie, and that he failed to substantiate his claims of the existence of altruism and fatalism; this is argued to such an extent that it has even been suggested that there is only one cause of suicide (egoism) that Durkheim could claim to be true. However, whilst acknowledging some of Durkheim’s own contradictions or confusions, some sociologists have gone on to develop and substantiate the ideas that he developed, and there is no denying that his study of suicide is a far-reaching and legacy-building work of substantial value.
Every year more than 4,000 teenagers between the ages of 15 and 24 commit suicide and another 400,000 attempt suicide; the number of suicides may be even higher because many suicides are hidden by families who report the suicides as accidents or murders (Klagsburn 16). “Suicide now ranks as the third leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24, trailing only accidents and homicides”(Worsnop 371). Over the past four decades, teenage suicide rose a staggering 200 percent (Waters 49). “Of all the suicides studied among people under 25, nearly two-thirds of them were committed with guns, teenagers who committed suicide by hanging themselves ranked second, and poisoning ranked third” (Colburn 5.)
The study conducted by Conner et al. (2014) sheds light on the association of acute alcohol use and suicide methods. However, about 28% of individuals in the study were not tested for alcohol. This might bias the results. In addition, Conner et al. (2014) did not consider whether there was a history of chronic alcohol use in these cases that might potentially influence alcohol use and the choice of suicide method. According to Kposowa and McElvain (2006), males with a history of substance abuse are more likely to complete suicide by overdose than males without such
Nock, M. K. and Banaji, M. R. (2007). Prediction of suicide ideation and attempts among
Suicide in adolescents is the third-leading cause of death in the United States between the ages of 10 though 19 (National Center for Health Statistics, 2012, 292). More adolescents who think even about attempting suicide are mostly the ones who are unsuccessful at it. Females for example, are more likely than males to attempt to commit suicide by either over dosing on sleeping pills or self harming. Most adolescents’ girls will not succeed in actually committing suicide. Males on the other hand, use more drastic ways of committing suicide, adolescent boys usually with a firearm rather than another meth...
Dokoupil, Tony. A. The "Suicide Epidemic" Newsweek Global 161.19 (2013): 1 Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Web.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds, and the sixth leading cause for 5 to 14 year olds. Suicide accounts for twelve percent of the mortality in the adolescent and young adult group. Young males are more common than young woman suicides. These are only children who followed through with the suicide. For every successful suicide there are fifty to one hundred adolescent suicide attempts. In other words, more than five percent of all teenagers tried to commit suicide, and the number is still rising. It is scary to think that four percent of high school students have made a suicide attempt within the previous twelve months. In a small safe town like Avon, in the Avon High School where you and I practically live, you can see the faces of 22 students that have tried to commit suicide. That is enough to fill a classroom.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Print. The. Suicide and Suicidal Behaviors. Suicide : Medline Plus.