Predictors of suicidal thinking: an empirical study of adolescents

Abstract

The rate of suicide and attempted suicide among adolescents is rising. In this work we studied the degree of suicidal thinking among adolescents, and the capacity of measures of selfconcept and depression to predict suicidal thinking, related to possible sex differences. A hundred and sixty-one adolescents aged 16-19 years who were attending school or vocational training centres were administered the Suicidal Ideation Scale (SIS; Beck, 1979) adapted for the Spanish population and abbreviated by Villardón (1993), the Self-Concept Scale (SCS; Villa, 1992), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) adapted for the Spanish population by Vázquez and Sanz. Results showed that girls had higher SIS scores than boys, and whereas 64% of the variance of the girls’SIS scores was accounted for by their BDI scores, the predictor accounting for most variance in the boys’SIS scores was the SCS score. This work highlight the need for interventions designed to prevent suicidal thinking among adolescents to take gender into account.