Adolescence is the time when the whirl of emotions and new feelings becomes a part of high school students’ life experience. Though adolescence is the period of life when people get positive experience, its extreme saturation and high intensity often prove too much for adolescents to bear without stress and suffering. The worst outcome of depression is suicide. Suicide is an awful deed in itself but it becomes even worse if committed by a child or an adolescent.
King et al. (1999) state that today suicide is a “the second leading cause of death among youth 15 to 19 years of age and the third leading cause of death among youth 15 to 24 years of age” (p. 202). Students who belong to racial and ethnic minorities constitute the group of risk connected with high depression and suicidal rates and it is the primary task of health teachers to reduce suicidal rates among all high school students, racial minorities included.
While Bernal (2003) states that children, who belong to ethnic and racial minorities, “are considered more resilient when … when they have a greater sense of self-control, self-efficacy, and a positive identity” (p. 475). However, current situation in high school does not provide healthy environment and treatment of students, especially racial minorities. McFadden (2010) states that Asian American women aged “15 to 24 lead in the highest suicide rate amongst all ethnic groups” (para. 1).
“Model minority” stereotype is one of the leading factors that influence the increased suicidal rate among racial minorities. Besides, the mixture of two cultures, a native one and a strange one contribute to emotional problems of minority students that result in depression and suicides as its worst outcome. Students suffer from cultural barriers as they often have nobody to help them and loneliness only aggravates depression.
Health issues become decisive factors and major causes of the increase of suicidal rates among high school students. It is known that people who belong to different races experience depression in different ways. For instance, if Hispanics suffer from depression, they experience not only emotional suffering but physical pain, such as headache, stomachache, etc. This is why the outcomes of depression in the case of Latino-American high school students become even worse than in the case of other ethnic and racial groups.
Health teachers are those people whose duty is to ensure that the students in their high school are mentally stable and emotionally and physically healthy. King et al. (1999) conducted a study of health teachers’ self-efficacy in relation to suicidal high school students. The study shows that the greater part of health teachers (70%) are aware of their primary role in identification of the students who are at risk. However, health teachers are often unable to identify a suicidal student; only 9% of teachers believe they are able to single out a student who is inclined to commit suicide (King et al., 1999).
The reason for this low self-efficacy of health students concerning the issue of adolescent suicide can be explained by absence of inservice programs on adolescent suicides for teachers (King et al., 1999). At the same time, the seriousness of the situation with suicides can be proven by the fact that the highest number of students’ suicides reported by health teachers was 25 per one teacher while a half of participants stated that students share suicidal thoughts with them (King et al., 1999, p. 206). The study shows that it is necessary to issue professional journals, conduct professional conferences, and provide high school health teachers with inservice courses on adolescent suicides to make teaching staff more efficient.
Reference List
Bernal, G. (2003). Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Minority Psychology. USA: SAGE.
King, K.A., Price J.H., Telljohann, SK., and Wahl J. (1999). High school health teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in identifying students at risk for suicide. The Journal of School Health, 69(5), 202-208.
McFadden, C. (2010). The growing rate of depression, suicide among Asian American students. Pacific Citizen. Web.