Correlation Between Peer Influence And Teen Suicide

Abstract

While many people may think there is not really a significant correlation between peer influence and teen suicide, there is an actual growth rate of younger people ending their lives while actively participating in an educational facility. Due to a large amount of bullying and risky behavior in schools, this might actually contribute to teen suicides. However, does the influence of peers push teenagers to prematurely die? Is risky behavior a factor in suicidal teens? Many questions need to be answered on whether peer influence contributes to teen suicide; so they will be answered in the following essay on The Correlation Between Peer Influence and Teen Suicide.

Suicide is a steadily increasing way of death in the world. With over 800,000 deaths, it is the 15th leading cause of death (Dorger, 2019). Of course, suicide in adolescents also takes part in this data. It has been found that suicide in adolescents mostly happens during the span of school age. The suicide rates for adolescents can also be simplified based on gender, race, and physical factors. To be able to understand this epidemic, we must first be able to understand what exactly this means and what suicide is.

Suicide in Teenagers

Suicide is when somebody intentionally takes their life in any way or form. This can also mean assisted suicide, where somebody intentionally gives another person the means to end their life. However, here we are only paying to regular suicide. Suicide can be broken down into categories of how the person died, the age of the person, gender, and physical appearance of the person. See the charts below:

Based on the 2017 youth risk behavior survey, 7.44% of youth in grades 9-12 reported at least one suicide attempt in the past 12 months. Female students attempted almost twice as often as male students (9.3% vs. 5.1%). Black students reported a rate of attempts of 9.8% and white students reported 6.1%[1]. However, this is about as accurate as possible because not all students reported suicide attempts.

Social and environmental risk factors include bullying, impaired parent-child relationship, living outside of the home (homelessness or in a corrections facility or group home), difficulties in school, social isolation, neither working nor attending school and in the presence of stressful life events, such as legal or romantic difficulties or an argument with a parent (Hatzenbuehler ML.). An unsupported social environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adolescents, for example, increases the risk of suicide attempts[3].

Bullying and Internet Usage

Bullying has been defined as having three parts: aggressive or deliberately harmful behavior (1) between peers that is (2) repeated and over time and (3) involves an imbalance of power, for example, related to physical strength or popularity, making it difficult for the victim to defend himself or herself. Behavior can fall into four categories: direct-physical (eg, assault, theft, any physical harm), direct-verbal (eg, threats, insults, name-calling), indirect-relational (eg, social exclusion, spreading rumors), and cyberbullying. The 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of students in grades 9 through 12 in the United States indicated that during the 12 months before the survey, 23.7% of girl and 15.6% of boys were bullied on school property, 21.0% of girls, and 8.5% of boys did not go to school 1 day in the past because they felt unsafe at or to or from school (Kann L, Kinchen S, Shanklin SL, et al;).

Reviewing 31 studies, Klimek et al found a clear relationship between both bullying victimization and perpetration and suicidal ideation and behavior in children and adolescents.

Pathologic Internet use correlates with suicidal ideation and NSSI. Self-reported daily use of video games and the Internet exceeding 5 hours was strongly associated with higher levels of depression and suicidality (ideation and attempts) in adolescents. A more specific problem is that adolescents with suicidal ideation may be at particular risk for searching the Internet for information about suicide-related topics. Suicide-related searches were found to be associated with completed suicides among young adults. Prosuicide Web sites and online suicide pacts facilitate suicidal behavior, with adolescents and young adults at particular risk (Shain, 2016). Internet users can also lead to suicide in adolescents due to cyberbullying and other ways.

Conclusion

Based on the above data and facts, there is a positive correlation between peer influence and adolescent suicide (See below graph). There tends to be a higher rate of teen suicide due to peer influence such as bullying and other means. Since then, mainly student, suicide is steadily growing, it is hopeful that means of stopping said epidemic are implicate