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Abstract
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A total of 1600 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16 living in a county bordering on Paris were interviewed concerning their health, their use of drugs, both legal and illegal, their behavior, and their seeking of health care. Fourteen percent of the boys and 23% of the girls had already thought about suicide and 5% and 10% (respectively) proclaimed having thought about it frequently. Young adolescents who thought about suicide, the girls as well as the boys, had more health problems (fatigue, nightmares, insomnia), used more drugs (including tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs, psychotropic medicine) and had more delinquent behavior (robbery, running away from home, racketeering). Furthermore, the girls had problems in school (absenteeism and being left back). In general, youngsters with suicidal thoughts resorted to violence in a variety of ways. Although these youngsters spoke less readily about their personal problems, they more frequently sought physical health care (doctors, nurses, social workers). This discrepancy between their difficulty in communication and their readiness to ask for physical care is a clear indication of their need to be helped.
OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this research by Choquet and Menke was to study the prevalence of suicidal thoughts during early adolescence and its association with various troubles and help-seeking behavior.
METHODOLOGY:
This study was a quasi-experimental design, involving a survey given to 93% (6% were absent, 1% refused) of a random sample of 1722 youth between the ages of 13 and 16. This survey involved questionnaires administered to 1600 adolescents (96% between ages 14 and 15) in a county bordering Paris, selected because of its socioeconomic diversity. There is a large percentage of immigrants in this county (24% of children non-French nationals, 40% are of non-French origin). Rate of working mothers is high (72%), and rate of broken homes also high (22%). Results of this survey were compared with a survey taken in rural districts and found to be similar. Response rate to the survey was extremely high (99%).
The questionnaire contained 150 precoded questions concerning sociodemographics, school, social and family relationships, way of life, health, legal and illegal use of drugs, and help-seeking activities. Comparisons were made with the respondents divided into four groups by their response to a question regarding thoughts about suicide(never, rarely, fairly often, very often). On each question, the percentage of respondents in the three groups who had suicidal thoughts were compared with the group who never had such thoughts, using the chi-square test. Means of these two groups were compared with an analysis of variance, with the .05 level indicating a significant difference.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The incidence of adolescents with suicidal thoughts is on the increase. From age 15-19, 1 in 3 has such thoughts, with 1 in 10 being frequently. Those who have suicidal thoughts tend to have more health problems, but are less open to discussing problems. They are more prone to violence and drug use, and the differences between those who have frequent or infrequent thoughts is similar. When looking at the group with frequent thoughts of suicide, there is more drug use, aggressiveness, pre-delinquent acting out (racketeering, stealing and running away). However, typical male problems (such as fighting, drug abuse, truancy, and accidents) are more often associated with suicidal thoughts in females, while typical female problems (e.g., insomnia, nervousness, fatigue, use of psychotropic drugs) are associated more frequently with males with suicidal thoughts. It appears that suicidal thoughts are linked with violent behavior, and are the expression of violence to oneself and others. This violence has not been properly worked through. Although youth with suicidal thoughts confide in others less frequently, they have contact with health care professionals more often.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
There is evidence of a 'call for help' in adolescents with suicidal thoughts. They seek help for somatic problems, but this may indicate personal problems. Health care team members (especially school nurses and general practitioners) need to be aware of this, and may need more training in identification of problems and in developing communication skills to seek to find the underlying problems that bring youth to them.
EVALUATION:
After initial confusion about the format of the article and the dialogue not being descriptive of the actual comparisons in the tables but of grouping of the data, it seemed to be an interesting and significant study. References to many other similar studies appeared throughout the article, and were well documented. Though the results of this study are restricted to the rather unusual urban population near Paris, it may be generalized to other similar populations near cities, with fairly high migrant populations. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
N1 - Call Number: F-48, AB-48
KW - Help Seeking Behavior
KW - Juvenile Suicide
KW - Juvenile Substance Use
KW - Suicidal Ideation
KW - Juvenile Female
KW - Juvenile Male
KW - Juvenile Behavior
KW - Juvenile Problem Behavior
KW - Psychosocial Factors
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