Adolescent constructions of the meaning of suicide.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Despite an awareness of the risk factors associated with adolescent suicide, it remains the third leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States. Previous research largely failed to account for an individual's process of meaning making. This study sought to deepen current understandings of adolescent suicide by investigating how six nonsuicidal adolescents understand the concept of suicide. Specifically, this research asked these participants about their beliefs, thoughts and feelings about the concept of suicide and about what meaning they ascribe to the act of suicide in their own lives. The participants in this study provided valuable insights into the experience of being an adolescent, and how this time of life represents a period of particular vulnerability. Several themes emerged from their interviews with regard to the participants' understandings of adolescent suicide. These themes include: (1) an adolescent's lack of perspective, (2) identity development and emotional tumult, (3) peer acceptance and rejection, and (4) the inability to see oneself on a temporal continuum. The information gained from this research offers psychologists, educators and others involved in the lives of adolescents a more complex understanding of the meaning of suicide in the lives of some adolescents. Furthermore, this research offers insight into the importance of understanding how and what adolescents think about their life experiences and the concept of suicide.