In addition to understanding the unique factors fueling the rate of suicide attempts in a study population, these questions help researchers highlight the correlates and other principal causal roles of suicide. According to available research evidence today, there are multiple environmental, psychological, and biological factors responsible for the prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempts among youth globally. This stage of life is characterized by several life changes that include moving from one state to another, changing jobs, incurring financial responsibilities, and investing in interpersonal and romantic relationships. During these periods, the pressure to make independent decisions that lead in a concrete direction in life also increases substantially. In addition to all these factors, young people must also address the challenges associated with a stage of life full of responsibilities including different ways of building their self-esteem, becoming more optimistic, nurturing professional and personal relationships, becoming more independent, and becoming more socially responsible. All these lead to a myriad of psychological and physical changes that naturally confront the expectations of this stage of life. In many people, the cycle develops favorably. In others, significant family and peer pressure inevitably provoke a level of helplessness,
stress, and a feeling of losing out. The latter group might resort to different tactics to correct the path and take control once again. Since the prevalence of suicide has been shown to significantly depend on protective factors, it is common to note that young people with stable living conditions, strong family connections, and a framework of financial resources tend to do better on any suicidal ideation assessment scale. Risk factors, in contrast to protective factors, increase the prevalence of suicidal ideation in this population. Depending on the age bracket, sex, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, and geographical location, there is a unique combination of risk factors that can interact in an overly complex manner (Kivela et al., 2022). Researchers exploring the complexities of these factors have shown that the interplay of genetic, social, psychological, and biological factors creates a web of possibilities that might affect suicide. Nevertheless, these factors can be studied by themselves, with the association between each simplified to better understand how a unique combination of factors may influence the prevalence of suicide. Although the examination of this combination of factors is beyond the scope of this course, the relevant risk factors and protective factors will be extensively discussed. as those with no history of childhood maltreatment reported a lower risk of suicide compared to those with histories of sexual, physical, or emotional maltreatment. the level of risk reported also seems to strongly depend on other factors such as the type of maltreatment, sex, and the presence of protective factors. Only a few pieces of evidence indicated no association at all. Bullying Peer victimization in the form of bullying shows a strong link to the prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempts in youth populations globally. In this context of research with a focus on suicide, bullying is considered an act of intentional disturbance or harm repeated over time. These acts also invoke a power differential as the victim struggles to break free and live a normal life. The impact of bullying on the prevalence of suicidal ideations in youth populations cannot be overemphasized. In different studies and social experiments, bullying in its different forms has been linked to social withdrawal and substance use. Victims resort to these means as they remain helpless in the face of bullying. In turn, social withdrawal and substance use have been linked to verbal/physical abuse, suicidal ideation and attempts in later life stages, and peer coercion. This vicious cycle ultimately leads to an increase in the prevalence of suicide in the youth population (Whalen et al., 2022). Most importantly, this impact is strongly present in the adolescent female population. Factors such as chronicity of victimization and duration of exposure to bullying also play important roles in how bullying affects the prevalence of suicidal ideation. Strangely, bullying seems to also impact the rate of suicide prevalence in all parties involved, including the perpetrator. According to reports, bullying also heightens the risk of subsequent suicidal ideations and behavior in perpetrators (Vergara et al., 2019). Cyberbullying constitutes a new form of bullying currently receiving huge interest as a research focus. Anonymity and the free space offered by many social medial platforms highly influence how individuals contribute to social interactions. To a considerable extent, this has changed the face of traditional bullying, as perpetrators can now hurl emotional abuse and insults at victims living miles away with just an Internet connection and smartphone. Cyberbullying has significantly contributed to the prevalence of suicide intent in the youth population. Although there is no compelling evidence to prove this contribution, cyberbullying also hastens the transition from intent to suicide attempts or death. As with traditional forms of bullying, cyberbullying has also been shown to be associated with suicidal ideation and attempts by both victim and perpetrator (Chu et al., 2022).
Environmental Risk Factors and Correlates of Youth Suicide Drawing an inference from available research evidence, environmental risk factors are the primary, easily measurable influences affecting suicide prevalence. The strongest arguments highlight bullying, childhood trauma, and maltreatment as the most influential of these factors. It is important to note that environmental factors may also be present in different forms and settings. For instance, beyond the traditional setting of the street and peer-to-peer bullying, the digital era of communications has made Internet bullying a big deal in the assessment of suicidal tendencies in youth populations. Childhood Maltreatment and Trauma Perhaps the most studied environmental factors affecting the prevalence of suicide in youth populations, childhood maltreatment and trauma significantly contribute to suicidal tendencies in adulthood. Various forms of maltreatment, including sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, set youth on the path of depression, another cause of suicidal ideation in adults. Regardless of family connectedness and other protective factors, maltreatment seems to have a unique effect on the prevalence of youth suicide attempts (Alvarez-Subiela et al., 2022). Cohort studies and surveys investigating the extent to which different forms of maltreatment influence suicide have produced
interesting reports. For instance, early research gauging these effects found that sexual abuse has a longer-term effect than physical abuse. The effects seem to linger for a long time, causing an emotional dent that provokes thoughts of retaliation, depression, insecurity, and - many times - suicide (Gomez et al., 2017). Also, controlling for covariates - including symptoms of depression, history of suicidal ideation, and sexual/physical abuse - emotional abuse has been shown to increase the risk of suicidal ideations in older children (Xie at al., 2022). Since research evidence on the effects of maltreatment has been clear enough, new inquiries have been made to identify the characteristics of maltreatment in youth. The onset of first exposure and the occurrence of exposure during particular times of adulthood or childhood are the two most studied temporal characteristics of maltreatment as it affects the prevalence of suicidal ideation. Although research on this subtopic has received significant attention in recent decades, the findings have not been exactly clear. However, most of the available evidence highlights the impact of exposure to maltreatment during the mid-adolescent stage. This exposure is reported to linger until adulthood as the affected subject struggles to overcome the challenges posed by maltreatment. Other evidence highlighting the effects of exposure during the preschool and early childhood years has also been published. In all these cases, maltreatment affects the prevalence of suicide,
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