Indicators for Severity of Suicide Behaviors and Coexisting Mental Disorders among Adolescents

Abstract

The ongoing scholastic debate on cursors of suicide behaviors among adolescents is fragmented. To bolster the discourse, this study therefore examined indicators for severity of suicide behaviors and co-existing mental health disorders. The research was conducted among 115 inpatient and out-patient adolescents at Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Kappa-Lagos Nigeria. The sample size was selected at 80% power and 30% effective size using purposive sampling technique. This research used Suicide Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), and Mood Disorders Questionnaire (MDQ) and researcher-generated socio-economic demographic questionnaire to collect data. The findings showed that depressive illness is a basic predictor of adolescent suicide (p=0.0001) while mother's employment status was seen to be a predictor of mental health condition especially major depressive disorder among adolescents (p=0.028). Other indicators of suicide behaviors among adolescents include gender (p=0.030), education (p= 0.0001) and mother's employment status (p=0.047). Also, higher frequency of suicide ideation was seen to be a predictor of suicide attempt (p < 0.0001), those who made threat of committing suicide more than once are likely to attempt suicide later in life, (p=0.001). Further, the results also indicated that suicide attempt with intent had a higher likelihood of completing suicide in the future (p < 0.0001). Suicide attempts predict complete suicide. The more frequent the suicide attempt, the more likelihood to complete suicide. Having discovered predictors of suicide behaviors among adolescents, researcher concluded with the need for early intervention and other useful recommendations to curtail this endemic phenomenon among adolescents.