Teen Suicide in the US: Risk Factors & Prevention Strategies - Research Paper

Research Questions

• What are the causes of suicide among many teens in the United States?
• What are the major signs a teen expresses before committing suicide?
• What are the prevention strategies that can be used to lower suicide rates among the teens?

Sampling Size

Three articles on teen suicide in the United States were located and summarized to create the evidence on risk factors and prevention strategies. The articles were acquired from websites providing information on suicide, were analyzed for quality and evidence and summarized in such a way that they offered the most important information that would be useful in creating recommendations for health professionals.

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Results

The articles used were supported by evidence with the websites they were retrieved from containing a lot of information about the suicide rates and how they can be reduced.

Health, S. (2020). Teen Suicide. Stanfordchildrens.org. Retrieved 17 February 2020, from https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=teen-suicide-90-P02584.

This article explains that suicide is a situation where teens create their death on purpose. The risks of teens committing suicide vary with gender, age as well as social and cultural influences. The reasons that push teens to commit suicide are complex and although suicide rates are low among children, the rates increase during adolescence. Suicide is the third leading death reason for teens after homicide and accidents with the risks increasing especially in situations where teens have access to guns near them.

From past research, boys are four times more probable to perish from suicide efforts than girls with guns being used in more than half of all teen suicides recounted in the United States. Teens attempt suicide due to various reasons mainly because of the stressful times they face from the major changes they start realizing. Changes in their bodies, feelings and thoughts create doubt, fear and confusion that eventually leads to stress if the teen does not get adequate counseling and support.

Such stress affects the teens' decision making process and increases the chances of attempting suicide. The pressure to succeed is also a major contributor to suicide rates among teens in the United States. The pressure that parents place on children at such ages to be successful combined with normal developmental changes such as changes in families like divorce, friendships and school problems make many teens opt for suicide as a solution.

The major warning signs for teen suicide are depression and individuals making plans or giving hints of suicide through verbal hints, getting rid of important belongings, strange thoughts and writing suicide notes. Thy mainly express depression through loss of interest in activities they loved, eating and sleeping habit changes, drug abuse, withdrawing themselves from family and friends, and physical complaints that are associated with stress such as headaches and fatigue.

Such signs should be taken seriously and suicides threats taken as a request for help rather than as a reason to discriminate and make fun of. All teens that express signs of suicide should be evaluated as fast as possible and an emergency plan created to treat such individuals for suicidal behavior. Treatments of teens with such behavior include family and individual therapy, and hospital stays for safe and supervised environments. To prevent their teens from committing suicide, parents should search for help for any substance abuse problems they possess, support the teens by listening to them and maintaining positive relationships, and making a move to get educated on teen suicide and the warning signs mainly from local groups and the internet.

Hagler, P. (2017). Teen Depression, Suicide, Stress, Anxiety, Healthy Coping Skills. The Council on Recovery, Huston, Austin. https://sths.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Teen-Depression-Suicide-Anxiety.-Healthy-Coping-Skills-STH-2016-17.pdf

This article suggests that the major contributors to suicide in teens are stress, trauma, social denunciation, family issues and the thought that suicide is a answer to pain and other major problems that they face. In America, students in high school and college have a possibility of suffering from depression more than the teens of 50 to 60 years ago. These increase in depression over the years are mainly due to technology overuse, and the role that media especially social media plays in influencing the thoughts of the teens. Stress and depression are related and are the main reasons of suicide amongst children aged 10 to 24. The teens often display warning signs before committing suicide such as offering suicidal threats and statements, crafting suicide plans, behavior changes and depression, and giving away possessions they valued before.

High risk behaviors lead to problems of mental health that increases anxiety and depression among teens. The best strategy for parents to use to help their children against suicide are catching depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts early that help to intervene using trained professionals. Monitoring of levels of stress and creating strategies to increase the coping skills helps to increase inclusion and social support of the teens reducing the suicide skills in the United States.

Lyness, D. (2015). About Teen Suicide. Kidshealth.org. https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/suicide.html.

This article shows how devastating it is to lose a young person to suicide due to frustrations and hopelessness. The reasons why teens commit suicide or attempt to commit suicide are complex and increase as children approach adolescence age. Most teens commit suicide using firearms or overdose of prescribed and non-prescribed medicines. Although girls think about and attempt to commit suicide more than boys, boys have been reported to die from suicide the more mainly because they use more dangerous methods with low chances of survival. Most adolescents face suicidal thoughts also due to sexual identity and relationships that create a need for independence different from what rules other people set and their expectations.

Mental health problems such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, insomnia and depression create higher risks for teens to develop suicidal thoughts. Other circumstances such as bullying and life changes such as divorce and financial challenges also are a large contributor of suicidal thoughts among teens. Poor relationships between parents cause little or no support to the children and they feel isolated. The warning signs of suicidal thoughts among teens are often visible after stressful life events such as school problems, breakups, death of a loved one or major family conflicts.

Parents have a huge responsibility in ensuring that they read early signs of their children having stress and showing possibilities of committing suicide. They should stop ignoring children when they threaten that they will hurt or kill themselves because it increases the chances of the teens doing exactly what they are threatening to do. Communication is essential between parents and the teens as it helps to deal with situations that may lead to death from suicide. In cases where the teens feel uncomfortable speaking to their parents, a more neutral person should be involved such as a counselor, another relative, a doctor or a coach.

Conclusion

The articles are of high quality and provide evidence based information that is easily accessible to policy makers, the general public and providers of health care. In crisis situations where teens are affected by suicidal thoughts, local emergency rooms can be used to conduct psychiatric evaluations that help them get the help they require. Conflicts between parents and teens fuel the negative thoughts for a teen to feel more isolated and devalued hence become more likely to commit suicide.

References

Hagler, P. (2017). Teen Depression, Suicide, Stress, Anxiety, Healthy Coping Skills. The Council on Recovery, Huston, Austin. https://sths.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Teen-Depression-Suicide-Anxiety.-Healthy-Coping-Skills-STH-2016-17.pdf

Health, S. (2020). Teen Suicide. Stanfordchildrens.org. https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=teen-suicide-90-P02584.

Lyness, D. (2015). About Teen Suicide. Kidshealth.org. https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/suicide.html.