Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Suicide--Risk factors; Teenagers--Suicidal behavior; Academic theses;
Abstract
Suicide is currently the third leading cause of death for children ages 10 to 14 years and adolescents ages 15 to 19 years. Numerous studies have identified factors such as gender, exposure to suicide, psychosocial stressors, and psychological factors as potential predictors for suicide related behavior. In comparison to individuals who attempt suicide, individuals who threaten suicide generally do so to friends and relatives. Given that adolescents who threaten suicide are least likely to come to the attention of mental health care professionals than those who attempt suicide, it is important to understand some of the specific factors that differentiate adolescents who threaten suicide from those who make suicide attempts or report suicide ideation for several reasons. First, there is currently a gap in the suicide literature regarding adolescent suicide threat. Second, the existing literature on suicide threat is outdated, and only a few of these studies involved adolescent samples. Finally, it is important to know what factors cause suicide threat to become suicide attempts, and what family and friends can do to prevent a suicide from becoming a suicide attempt. The current study was designed to examine some of the psychological factors associated with adolescent suicide related behaviors. In the current study, participants were 143 boys and 156 girls from two separate adolescent units of a state psychiatric hospital. The data were drawn randomly from an archival data set developed by Dr. Augustine Osman. Four major hypotheses that included categories of suicide risk, suicide threat and appropriate controls were tested. Adolescents in the suicide threat group reported higher symptoms of psychological distress including: depression, mania, and posttraumatic stress when compared with appropriate controls. Results of the supplemental analyses did not identify specific correlates of suicide threat. The lack of potential correlates for suicide threat may be accounted for in part by the fact that most psychiatric inpatients present with suicide attempt or ideation at the time of admission than with suicide threat.
Year of Submission
2007
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Augustine Osman
Second Advisor
John Williams
Third Advisor
Carolyn Hildebrandt
Date Original
2007
Object Description
1 PDF file (107 leaves)
Copyright
©2007 Jennifer Bailey
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Bailey, Jennifer, "Life Threatening Communication: Assessing Suicide Threat and Its Relation to Psychological Factors in Adolescent Inpatient Sample" (2007). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 1981.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/1981
Comments
If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.