Relationships between suicide attitudes and indicators of mental health among adolescents

A growing body of research literature suggests a relationship between mental health status and attitudes toward suicide among adolescents. This paper reports two studies which explored opposite ends of the mental health continuum as they relate to suicide attitudes among young people. The first study compared attitudes toward suicide between a group of institutionalized 15-24 year olds and a group of college students. The second study assessed suicide attitudes among a group of college students with differing levels of mental health. Two major findings of these studies were that (a) young women with mental health problems severe enough to require institutionalization agree more with all reasons for suicide than do institutionalized males or males and females in a non-institutionalized group, and (b) students who score higher on one measure of self-actualization (inner-directedness) sympathize, empathize, and agree less with all reasons for suicide than do students who score lower on the same measure. Gender, and, to some extent, sex roles were found to be influential in determining sympathetic attitudes toward suicide. Females and feminine males sympathize more than other groups with all reasons for suicide, while males and masculine females sympathize less. The findings are discussed from mental health and sex roles perspectives.