Child and Adolescent Suicide Risk Factors
Demographic risk factors
- Male
- Caucasian
Biological risk factors
- Impulsivity
- Aggression
- Hyperactivity
- Brain damage
Emotional risk factors
- All mental disorders, but most prevalent arc:
- Depression (particularly hopelessness) and other affective disorders (particularly bipolar disorder)
- Schizophrenia
- Substance abuse
- Identity problems
- Anger and impulsivity
- Antisocial personality disorder/conduct disorder
- For children: Expendable child syndrome
Cognitive risk factors
- Rigid cognitive structure
- Limited problem-solving ability
- External locus of control
- Inability to envision a future
- Immature views of death and suicide
- Attraction to death and repulsion from life
- Perfectionism
Environmental risk factors
- Family dysfunction, including:
- High levels of conflict
- Parental alcoholism or substance abuse
- Physical or sexual abuse
- High levels of medical or psychiatric problems
- Suicide within the family
- Early loss
- Social isolation
- Poor peer relationships
- Bullying (among boys) and victimization
Excerpt from Suicide: An Essential Guide for Helping Professionals and Educators , by D.H. Granello & P.F. Granello , 2007 edition, p. 206.
© 2007, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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