final research proposal
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Research Proposal: Suicide in Adolescents and Youth
Destani Lewis
PSY-495
June 10, 2022
Professor Katz
Research Proposal: Suicide in Adolescents and Youth
Introduction
Suicide is an intentional decision by a person to take their life. According to psychologists, suicide ideation is a reactive response to psychiatric emergencies and stresses. It is one of the leading health problems that affect the United States and other developed countries. In Western nations, suicide was considered a criminal act before the 19th century (Tomasi et al 2019). At present, suicide is one of the major health concerns globally. It is the third leading cause of death among adolescents and youth aged between 15 and 24 in the U.S.A. The problem accounts for approximately 1.4 percent of all deaths globally. Many suicides stem from psychological disorders, with depression, alcohol and substance abuse disorders, and psychosis forming part of the most dominant risk factors (Bradvik, 2018). Nonetheless, other mental diseases such as anxiety, personality traits, eating habits, and posttraumatic stress disorders also form a significant component of suicide-related deaths (Brådvik, 2018). The following paper seeks to investigate how toxic socialization, peer pressure, and drug abuse contribute to suicide ideation. The research also seeks to evaluate whether psycho social counseling can help in reducing suicidal thoughts among adolescents and youth. It will also highlight some limitations of this study.
Problem statement
The problem of concern is suicide among adolescents. Studies indicate that adolescents are disproportionately at high risk of committing suicide than children and adults. Adolescents have low emotional quotient than adults. According to Apter (2020), adolescents are vulnerable to suicide due to the sensitivity and vulnerability of the stage. During adolescence, most teens engage in weird activities such as substance use and drug abuse. Studies have established that individuals under the influence of drugs and substances are more likely to experience psychosis than those who are not under the influence of any substance. Drug and substance abuse increase feelings of hallucination, thus exacerbating the ideation of suicide among adolescents more than adults or children. Besides, adolescents are prone to peer pressure, thus making them more vulnerable to engagement in vices like drug abuse to comply with the group norms, leading to increased vulnerability to traumatic experiences. Additionally, studies indicate that adolescents are prone to toxic socialization, which disproportionately exposes them to physical and emotional abuse (Bridley & Daffin, 2020). For instance, adolescents are prone to sexual assault and exploitation by sex predators. Such conditions expose adolescents to feelings of disillusionment, depression, and trauma. Overwhelming pressure caused by such conditions predisposes adolescents to think about committing suicide more than any other category of the human population. Failure to address the toxicity of the environment, lack of parental concern, and peer pressure are likely to predispose adolescents to suicide ideation. Therefore, it is crucial to address the issue of suicide among adolescents because apart from the psychotic experiences that increase vulnerability to suicide, the sensitivity and vulnerability of adolescents to psychotic experiences are higher than children and adults. It is crucial to address suicide tendencies and ideation among adolescents to reduce deaths associated with suicide among adolescents.
Purpose of the Study
Sher, (2019) observers that suicide is affecting a significant number of adolescents and youth in the U.S.A and across the globe at present. Consequently, it has become a hot topic worth being given special attention by both the government and the department of health. This study seeks to explain why the problem of suicide ideation is rampant among adolescents and youth. By considering the complexity of adolescence as a stage of development, the paper seeks to explain vulnerability to peer pressure and engagement in vices such as drugs and substance abuse contributes to increased trauma and psychosis among this group of individuals, thus leading to a higher rate of suicide ideation Torok et al 2020). Furthermore, this study also seeks to examine and explain the correlation between toxic socialization and increased cases of suicide among adolescents. Finally, this paper will conclude by examining whether psycho social counseling can help in reducing the prevalence of suicide ideation among adolescents.
Research Questions
1. How do drug use and drug abuse exacerbate suicidal thoughts among adolescents?
1. Is toxic socialization a contributing factor to increased psychosis and suicide ideation cases?
1. What role do peer pressure and desire for conformity play in the increased suicidal cases among adolescents?
1. Can counseling reduce suicide among adolescents?
Research hypothesis
H1: Individuals who live in toxic social environments are more likely to experience psychosis, trauma, and depression and are disproportionately prone to suicide ideation.
H2: Psychosocial counseling and proper parental support can help in reducing cases of suicide among adolescents and youth.
Literature Review
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.) proposes one of the most prominent definitions of suicide. According to C.D.C. (2021), it refers to a fatality arising from injury of oneself to die. It also regards suicidal attempts as phenomena that occur when people harm themselves to end their lives but fail to die due to their decisions. Many factors interact to predispose or protect people from suicidal thoughts. This problem is, for instance, linked to varying forms of violence and injuries. Individuals with negative past experiences of assaults, bullying, child abuse, and sexual harassment have the highest suicide risk factors. Being linked to family and societal support history and increased access to health care services reduces suicide ideation and tendencies.
In the last few years, suicidal rates have risen phenomenally in the United States. In 2019 and 2020, for instance, this health problem has been the leading cause of fatalities in the country, with approximately 45,979 cases recorded in 2020 (C.D.C., 2021). This figure, if simplified, amounts to one death every eleven-minute. Additionally, the number of individuals contemplating taking their lives is approximately 12 million adults, with 1.2 million planning or attempting to take their lives.
Demographic factors also play an integral role in heightening suicide ideation. Individuals from low-income groups are, for instance, more likely to engage in suicide ideation than their wealthier peers. This problem is primarily owed to life stressors such as unemployment and the inability to meet daily personal and family financial obligations. Additionally, age variation also exists among those who plan suicide, with the leading being among people aged between 10 to 14 and 25 to 34 years, respectively. Moreover, immigrants exhibit higher rates of suicide than their native counterparts owing to the life stressor that they undergo, such as homelessness and inadequate access to necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing. Other risk factors that predispose them to suicide include cultural barriers, loss of status, loss of social network, and a stressful acculturation rate (Bridley & Daffin, 2020).
Research Design
The qualitative methodology will be used to conduct the study. The researcher has settled on qualitative research because of its distinctive characteristic of providing qualified explanations of the study problem. Furthermore, the qualitative study approach is appropriate for this study because it aims at understanding social events and people’s experiences Cleary, 2019)since suicide among adolescents is a social phenomenon caused by psychotic experiences, including domestic violence, accidents, and alcohol and substance abuse, qualitative analysis is more appropriate for interrogating the problem. The phenomenological qualitative design is the best research design for this study. It is concerned with understanding why specific events occur and seeking to find answers to social issues (Doupnik, et al., 2018). Therefore, the qualitative phenomenological methodology is appropriate since it will aid in understanding the reasons for suicide among adolescents, which will inform strategic recommendations that can be applied to mitigate the issue of suicide among adolescents.
Ethical Considerations
Considering that this experiment will involve human subjects the researcher has put into consideration several ethical considerations, for instance, all participants in the research will have to sign a consent form before participating in the experiment to ensure that only participants who are willing to participate in the research are engaged. The researcher will therefore not coerce anybody to participate in the research. Where participants have not attained the majority age the researcher will seek parental consent as required for experiments involving minors. Secondly, the researcher will ensure integrity and privacy of participant information gathered during the study. No information gathered for purposes of this study will be used for other activities other than the research into suicide, unless authorized by the participants. The study will designed in a way that recognizes and respects human dignity. This will include among other things ensuring safety of the participants.
Limitations
This research has explained in detail the concept of suicide ideation. However, it has not adequately addressed other factors, such as biological and hereditary factors. Additionally, the research has been silent about other predisposing factors to suicidal thoughts, such as occupations and engagements. Moreover, the research has not exhausted other important elements such as the pharmacological interventions available for this problem because of limited financial resources. Consequently, the researcher recommends further studies on this topic to better understand other factors that contribute to suicidal thoughts and the potential pharmacological management approaches.
References
Apter, A. (2020). Suicide and Suicidal Behavior. Public Health Reviews, 34(2), 1.
Brådvik, L. (2018). Suicide risk and mental disorders. International journal of environmental
research and public health, 15(9), 2028.
Bridley, A., & Daffin Jr, L. W. (2020). Abnormal Psychology. Washington State University.
Burke, M., González, F., Baylis, P., Heft-Neal, S., Baysan, C., Basu, S., & Hsiang, S. (2018).
Higher temperatures increase suicide rates in the United States and Mexico. Nature
climate change, 8(8), 723-729.
C.D.C. (2021). Facts about suicide.
https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html#:~:text=Suicide%20is%20death%20caused
%20by,a%20result%20of%20their%20actions.
Cleary, A. (2019). The gendered landscape of suicide: Masculinities, emotions, and culture.
Springer.
Doupnik, S. K., Rudd, B., Schmutte, T., Worsley, D., Bowden, C. F., McCarthy, E., ... &
Marcus, S. C. (2020). Association of suicide prevention interventions with subsequent
suicide attempts, linkage to follow-up care, and depression symptoms for acute care
settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA psychiatry, 77(10), 1021-1030.
Sher, L. (2019). Resilience as a focus of suicide research and prevention. Acta Psychiatrica
Scandinavica, 140(2), 169-180.
Tomasi, S. E., Fechter-Leggett, E. D., Edwards, N. T., Reddish, A. D., Crosby, A. E., & Nett, R.
J. (2019). Suicide among veterinarians in the United States from 1979 through
2015. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 254(1), 104-112.
Torok, M., Han, J., Baker, S., Werner-Seidler, A., Wong, I., Larsen, M. E., & Christensen, H.
(2020). Suicide prevention using self-guided digital interventions: a systematic review
and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. The Lancet Digital Health, 2(1), e25-
e36.