The purpose of this study is to understand relation of communication between parents and adolescents, Internet addiction, and suicide ideation, and to present programs of family efforts for reducing suicide ideationof adolescents.
For doing this, the ...
The purpose of this study is to understand relation of communication between parents and adolescents, Internet addiction, and suicide ideation, and to present programs of family efforts for reducing suicide ideationof adolescents.
For doing this, the author identified various factors affecting suicide ideationvia precedent research, literature review, and survey by using questionnaires.
The subjects of this study were high school students lived in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Gangwon-do, and a total 598 questionnaires were used for the final data analysis. The questionnaires consisted of items of general characteristics of the subjects, communication of parents and adolescents, Internet addiction, and suicide ideation. The collected data were tested via frequency analysis, cross tabulation analysis, ANOVA, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis, based on research questions.
The results of this study are as follows. First, suicide ideation, communication between parents and adolescents, and Internet addiction based on socio-demographic characteristics of the subjects were investigated. There were no differences in Internet addiction between general high school and vocational high school students. As for suicide ideation, communication, and Internet addiction based on school records, the subjects whose records were upper had the highest perception of open-type communication, followed by those with mid records and those with lower records (in order). In other words, as school records were higher, open-type communication between parents and adolescents was highly shown. Meanwhile, the subjects whose school records were lower had the highest perception of problem-type communication, followed by those with mid records and those with upper records (in order), indicating problem-type communication was highly perceived between parents and adolescents as school records were lower. However, there was no significant difference in types of Internet users based on school records.
As for suicide ideation, communication, Internet addiction based on duration of Internet using, there were statistically significant differences only in communication and Internet addiction, other than suicide ideation. This result indicate that open-type communication was higher as duration of Internet using was shorter and problem-type communication was higher as duration of Internet using was longer.
As for the types of Internet addiction based on duration of Internet using, the rate of high-risk users and potential-risk users were higher as duration of Internet using was longer.
Second, relations of communication between parents and adolescents, Internet addiction, suicide ideation were investigated. Based on correlations of suicide ideation, communication, and Internet addiction of the subjects, suicide ideation had negative correlation with open-type communication and had positive correlations with problem-type communication and Internet addiction. In other words, as for the relation between communication and suicide thought, suicide ideation of adolescents was reduced as communication between parents and adolescents was more open and was enhanced as such communication was more problematic. This result indicates that open relation between parents and adolescents reduces suicide ideation of adolescents, emphasizing importance of communication between parents and adolescents.
Also, as for relation between Internet addiction and suicide ideation, suicide ideation was high as Internet addiction was more serious. This result indicates that Internet addiction is generally social problem and may be a factor causing suicide in adolescents, suggesting necessity of programs for prevention of Internet addiction of adolescents.
The author in this study set the starting point of adolescent suicide at suicide ideation, coped with relation of communication between parents and adolescents and Internet addiction, and emphasized the importance. There have been sufficient researches of suicide thought, this study may be appropriate in identifying relation of suicide ideation with Internet addiction, given the changes of time. Furthermore, this study rather intensifies the importance of parent-adolescent communication via investigating parent-adolescent communication as a factor of Internet addiction, suggesting development of educational programs to promote parent-adolescent communication.