Reasons for adolescent suicide attempts: associations with psychological functioning

Abstract

Objective: To determine reasons for suicide attempts in adolescents and to examine the relationship between these reasons and psychological functioning.

Method: Self-reported reasons for suicide attempts and psychological functioning were examined in 120 adolescent suicide attempters who presented to a pediatric general hospital.

Results: Consistent with prior research, the most frequently endorsed motives for self-harm were to die, to escape, and to obtain relief. More manipulative reasons for overdose (such as making people sorry) were endorsed less frequently. Adolescents who cited death as a reason for their suicide attempt reported more hopelessness, socially prescribed perfectionism, depression, and anger expression. Discriminant function analyses indicated that high levels of depression and anger expression predicted a self-reported wish to die, and high levels of depression and socially prescribed perfectionism predicted death as the primary reason reported for the suicide attempt.

Conclusions: Systematic assessment of the reasons for a suicide attempt is a useful tool for clinicians in determining recommendations for follow-up treatment.