The association between attitudes toward suicide and suicidal ideation in adolescents

The aims of this study were to determine whether adolescent attitudes to suicide could be grouped into distinct factors, and then to examine the relationship between these factors and the psychosocial parameters known to be associated with suicide, and between attitudes towards suicide and suicidal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica 1998-03, Vol.97 (3), p.195-201
Main Authors: Stein, D., Brom, D., Elizur, A., Witztum, E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
adolescence
Adolescent
Attitude to Death
Attitude to Health
Attitude towards mental illness
Biological and medical sciences
Chi-Square Distribution
Cross-Sectional Studies
Discriminant Analysis
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Female
Humans
Israel
Male
Medical sciences
Psychology, Adolescent
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Regression Analysis
Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
suicidal ideation
suicide
Suicide - psychology
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Summary:The aims of this study were to determine whether adolescent attitudes to suicide could be grouped into distinct factors, and then to examine the relationship between these factors and the psychosocial parameters known to be associated with suicide, and between attitudes towards suicide and suicidal ideation. A questionnaire designed to assess attitudes to suicide was distributed to a total of 525 Israeli adolescents. Statistical analysis indicated that the attitude items could be grouped into four distinct factors: the right of society to prevent suicide; suicide as a symptom of mental illness; the right of the individual to talk about suicide; and taking suicidal behaviour seriously. Each factor was differentially associated with the various psychosocial parameters examined. The association between the attitude factors and subjects' suicidal ideation was significant and at least as strong as that of the psychosocial parameters normally associated with adolescent suicide, namely gender and exposure to suicide. A generally approving attitude towards suicide was correlated with a high level of suicidal ideation.
ISSN:0001-690X
1600-0447
DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1998.tb09987.x