Introduction
This research explores the witnessed increase in teenage suicide in the United States. Factors that are attributed to the causes of teenage suicide have always drawn mixed reactions from policymakers, parents, and organizations that work to prevent the issue in America, specifically in the state of New Jersey, which forms the focus of this research. This study is done based on questions that relate to demographic and educational factors that fuel teenage suicide.
A sample of 25 New Jersey residents will be deployed to get data whose analysis and interpretation will help in drawing conclusions for this research. Questionnaires will be used as a major tool for data collection.
The analyzed data will help to confirm whether income, level of education, and demographic factors determine teenage suicide in New Jersey. The results of this research confirm that low levels of education, low income, unemployment, and living around Hispanic and Black people might determine the cause of suicide for New Jersey teenagers.
Limitations
This study faced various limitations in the process of collecting and analyzing the subject. The time span for carrying out the research was limited. Hence, only a small pool of respondents was sampled. The available time only allowed exclusive data collection from 25 participants in New Jersey. Since the total population of New Jersey’s residents is far higher than this figure, the sample was very small. However, it was representative of the entire population.
Review of Literature
According to Szumilas and Kutcher, teenage suicide is one of the major causes of teenage deaths in the United States (596). Although there has been a decrease in the rate of teenage suicide in New Jersey, 4.6% of teenagers who have been committing suicide in the last five years is still considered high due to the value of life in this state.
Klimes-Dougan et al. confirm that the reasons for teenage suicide have ranged from infection with incurable sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, financial stress, job loss, demotion, jilting by lovers, cheating spouses, and drug and substance abuse (129). The state of New Jersey is rated the third lowest in cases of teenage suicide. Both the state and national governments have enacted various policies in an effort to zero-rate cases of teenage suicide.
The weight of the matter and value of life makes the government and nongovernmental organizations invest resources in minimizing the menace. Murphy observes that the rate of teenage suicide in New Jersey is higher in males compared to females (44). Although the rate of successful suicides is higher in men than in women, the latter makes more attempts to commit suicide than men (Szumilas and Kutcher 596).
For example, between 2009 and 2011, New Jersey recorded more than seven out of 100,000 men who committed suicide compared to close to two out of 100,000 females in the same period (Szumilas and Kutcher 598). Nonetheless, almost 60 out of 100,000 females attempted to commit suicide compared to roughly 35 out of 100,000 males in the same period. Women who attempted suicide ended up in hospitals where they were treated, discharged, and in most cases, prosecuted.
Research by Szumilas and Kutcher also indicates that teenage suicide is higher in Hispanics or Latinos compared to other races that reside in New Jersey (599). In addition, the rate of teenage suicide is higher in the rural parts of New Jersey compared to the urban areas. Silas and Kutcher have also found a higher predisposition to teenage suicide among gays and lesbians (600).
Therefore, the government has established quick response measures, including hotline numbers that work 24 hours in a bid to reduce cases of successful and attempted teenage suicide.
According to Klimes-Dougan et al., suicide is the third leading cause of teenage in the United States after accidents and manslaughter (131). Teenage suicide accounts for 13 in every 100,000 (0.01%) adolescent deaths. According to Szumilas and Kutcher, in the next ten years, it is projected that 0.1% of youths in the United States will commit suicide (602). In the modern-day US, 14% of teenagers have confirmed considering taking away their lives within the last twelve months.
While 4% of them have confirmed trying suicide, 1% of them have testified visiting a health officer for such evil trials. Although researchers have shown a higher rate of teenage suicide in rural states compared to urban states, the disparity is still small (Szumilas and Kutcher 602). For example, although New Jersey is an urban state, teenage suicide is still evident. Suicide rates in New Jersey have been rated the third lowest in the US at 6.2% in every 100,000 teenagers after New York and Colombia (Szumilas and Kutcher 603).
The New Jersey Department of Children and Families reveals a decrease in suicidal rate among teenagers in New Jersey. For example, the latest available suicide report indicates that teenage suicide decreased from 5.3% in 2010 to 4.2% in 2011 below the national teenage suicide rate of 5.8%.
However, the rate of teenage suicide is still high. Families continue to grief over their loved ones whom they have lost to suicide. Suffocation, hanging, use of firearms, poisoning, and falls stand out as some of the leading causes of teenage suicide deaths in New Jersey (Szumilas and Kutcher 603).
One of the major unexplored areas in research is the cause of death among teenagers who commit suicide. In fact, secondary literature towards this end is rare. The available literature from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) 2010 database presents hanging as suffocation as the leading suicidal methods among the youths in New Jersey at 40.1%. The second method of teenage suicide, which takes 28.5%, is shooting using a firearm.
Self-poisoning using drugs takes 12.1% while falls from high points come fourth at 3.9% followed by the use of poisoning gas at 3.8%, use of sharp objects at 3.4%, self-drowning at 2.8%, jumping in front of a moving vehicle/train at 1.5%, burning/fire at 0.7, and the use of motor vehicle crash at 0.3%. However, the reason behind the choice of method of committing suicide is scarcely researched.
Murphy claims that the available research indicates that the choice of method of suicide depends on the availability of the tool such as a gun, rope, drug, gas, sharp object, vehicle, or even a speeding train (44). Silas and Kutcher reveal that the choice of method of suicide is dependent on the level of education or the teenager’s urgency for suicide (604). This research explores this area in detail.
Methodology
This study sought to find out the reasons behind the varied causes of suicidal deaths among teenagers in New Jersey. Therefore, the research was carried out through the participation of New Jersey residents.
Sampled Population
From the population of New Jersey, this research sampled 25 residents who were to help in responding to the questionnaires. The respondents were divided into three stratums, namely high school youths, university-level teenagers, and out-of-school adolescents from New Jersey. After the researcher informed these respondents about the research and its objectives, they all agreed to volunteer information.
Materials
This study was founded on a fourteen-question questionnaire that had both closed and open-ended questions. The first five questions asked about the demographic characteristics of the respondent. Other questions revolved around the respondents’ income levels, their education, and the key issues concerning the research topic. The respondents were required to maintain the secrecy of their persons while responding to the questionnaires.
Procedure
The research was carried out in the state of New Jersey. The process took a period of six days from December 22 to the 28th day of the same month. On the first day, the researcher requested the sampled high-school teenagers to fill the questionnaires. On December 24, the researcher visited and requested the sampled university-level adolescents to answer the questions. On December 28, the researcher visited the out-of-school youngsters and requested them to fill the questionnaires.
Results
The study was set out to investigate the causes of suicidal deaths among teenagers in the American state of New Jersey. Therefore, the findings were based on the 25 respondents whose age was between 13 and 19 years. These teenagers resided in different cities in New Jersey, ranging from Kenilworth, Elizabeth, Linden, and Newark, among others. Among the respondents, 50% of them were Hispanic/Latinos, 23% were African-Americans, 15% were Asians, and 12% were the Whites.
The study began by asking the respondents whether they had ever attempted suicide. Ten respondents affirmed that they had attempted suicide at least once while the rest (15) responded that they had never attempted it. In another question, 12 (48%) respondents responded that they had contemplated suicide at least once in their lives.
The remaining 13 (52%) of the 25 responded that they had never attempted or contemplated suicide. Only five (20%) of the 25 teenagers responded that they had contemplated suicide more than once. Another question indicated that three (12%) of the 25 respondents had attempted suicide more than once.
When asked why they had neither attempted nor contemplated suicide, eight of 13 respondents said that they turned to God/religion for answers to their problems whenever they were stressed. Two respondents said that they turned to drugs and alcohol. Besides, while the other two respondents said that they naturally valued life and that they understood the consequence of suicide, the remaining one interviewee said that he had never got to the point of thinking of terminating his life.
When they were asked how they had learned to value their lives, one of the two respondents said that he had attended a conference on anti-youth suicide in Jersey while the other one answered that he had learned the ill effects of suicide at school. When asked the same question, three out of the eight respondents who said that they turn to religion whenever they faced a stressful situation answered that they had learned in church that God prohibited suicide.
One out of the eight interviewees had learned that it was a sin to commit suicide from the Mosques. While three out of the eight interviewees responded that they had learned the futility of suicide and the sacred nature of life from school, the remaining one respondent had learned from a friend about turning to God for answers concerning mysteries of life.
When they were asked why they contemplated committing suicide, two (16%) of the 12 respondents who had earlier responded that they had considered suicide cited stressors such as lack of finances as the other four (32%) cited rejection by their lovers or a relationship gone sour. While two (16%) cited early pregnancy, three (25%) cited incurable sexually transmitted diseases. Only one (8.3%) of the 12 respondents cited job-related factors such as demotion, retrenchment, and being sacked from a job.
When they were asked about the method of suicide that they had tried to use when they attempted suicide, four (40%) of the ten interviewees responded that they had tried to hang themselves. Three (30%) of them responded that they had tried to suffocate themselves using carbon gas, while two of them (20%) responded that they had tried to shoot themselves using a firearm. Only one of them (10%) responded that she had tried to poison herself using a harmful drug.
Summary
The issue of teenage suicide has been common not only in the US but also in other parts of the world. The research has presented the various factors that fuel teenage suicide in New Jersey. However, it has made it clear that more research needs to be done concerning the choice of methods that the victims adopt.
This area forms the most important part of the questions that this research was trying to investigate. This group was considered vulnerable to suicide. For instance, when they were asked about the method of suicide they had attempted to use in committing suicide, various methods were cited, including the use of a rope, hanging, or even firearms.
Works Cited
Klimes-Dougan, Bonnie, Chih Yuan, Steve Lee, and Alaa Houri. “Suicide prevention with Adolescents: Considering Potential Benefits and Untoward Effects of Public Service Announcements.” The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide prevention 30.3(2009): 128-135. Print.
Murphy, Kathryn. “What can I do to prevent teen Suicide?” Nursing 1.1 (2005): 43-45. JSTOR.
Szumilas, Magdalena, and Stan Kutcher. “Teen Suicide Information on the Internet: A systematic Analysis of Quality.” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 54.9(2009): 596-604. Print.