Teen suicide is the third leading cause of death for people ages 15-24, while homicides and accidents take the top. Researchers have come up with a “teen screen” to look for key factors is those at high risk for suicide. Mental illness is the leading risk factor for suicide. Now they have increased prevention efforts with school education programs, crisis center hotlines in addition to the screening programs.
What they found was that one in five teens seriously considers suicide. Causes of suicidal distress could be caused by psychological, environmental, and social factors. Suicide risk factors vary with age, gender, ethnic group, family dynamics, and stressful life events. This could be an outcome of the developmental process, such as the child being exposed to family deaths, physical or sexual abuse and many more major stressful events that the child was unable to control during their development. Some key things that the researchers survey looks for is when children talk about dying, have had a recent loss, low self-esteem, change in behavior, sleep patterns, personality and changes in eating habits, along with having no hope for the future.
However, I feel that some of these key indicators to them could be possibly be a part of their normal development. Changes in sleep patterns, behavior, and personality may not necessarily indicate a high-risk suicide patient. During this stage, the young adults are still trying to find a sense of belonging and self. They change their group of friends often, which have different behavioral impacts on the young adult. This could be a contribution to some of the behaviors the researchers would typically classify as a sign of high-risk suicide. Some of the stronger behaviors I do agree with that may make a person more vulnerable to suicide are talking about death and having recent loss.
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