Suicide Problem Among Young in Malaysia

Background

Definition of teen suicide and suicide attempts

World Health Organization

(WHO)

“Act of deliberately killing oneself”

De Wilde (2000)

Suicide attempts = any self injurious behaviour with a non-fatal outcome regardless of the intention

Tam et al (2011)

Teenagers are groups of people with the age ranging from 13 years old to 20 years old

Statistics

Kok and Goh (2011)

Suicide rates in Malaysia keep rising and it was found that almost 7% of teenagers in Malaysia is having suicidal thought and more than half of them successfully turned it into action

Tam et al (2011)

Recorded cases are much less as compared to the actual number of suicide. This may be due to suicide are recognised as crime in Malaysia

Maris (2001)

Female attempt 3 times more than male but male successfully kills themselves which results in increase of statistics 3 times more than female.

Issues

Moscicky (1994), Canetto & Sakinofsky (1998)

An act of self injury may be an indicator for help. Most of female suicide attempters may use suicide as a cry for help or to teach others lesson.

Methods used

Ayd & Palma (1999),

Pires et al (2014)

Difference in suicide rates between gender could be due to different methods used by the different gender.

Male attempters usually use more aggressive techniques which result in high and immediate lethality.

Females, on the other hand, use less aggressive techniques.

Thesis

Depression is the main and common reason for people to commit suicide and the inability of an individual to manage stress will lead to depression.

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Depression may contribute in the increase of number of teen suicide

Thesis

Many problems may induce stress and stress brings about depressions. Depressed individuals are more prone to attempt suicide

Pires et al (2014)

Depression is the most relevant and most common risk factor associated with suicide in general.

Depression may be due to physical and psychological distress, life terminality, social, economic, and cultural problems, losses, abandonment, loneliness, family conflict, etc.

Portes, Sandhu & Longwell (2002)

During adolescent stage, teenagers went through the search of their own identity through sexual, social, ideology and career domain.

Depression due to inability to find their identity results in suicidal thought and behaviour

Wagner, Cole & Schwartzman (1995)

Factors contributing to frequency of attempt includes hopelessness and family history of depression.

Brown (2001)

People who are diagnosed with depression are 22 to 36 times more likely to kill themselves.

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Lack of religious belief may lead to suicide

Thesis

Religious belief, which is a traditional protective shield, are slowly deteriorating in today’s society, hence pushing human to give up in life and commit suicide.

Religion also may act as a coping mechanism when an individual faced with a tremendous amount of stress.

Adnan (2009)

The process of growing up may results in instability feelings in teenagers and traditional protective factors such as family and religion are no longer in place.

WHO

Top ten nation with highest suicide rate, all but one are strongly irreligious nations with high level of atheism.

Brown (2001)

Islamic countries have higher tendency to have lower suicide rates in the world.

Islam strictly prohibited suicide.

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Alcohol misuse is a risk factor to suicide

Thesis

Alcohol is consumed when an individual want to feel intoxicated and dozed off from stress. Alcohol increases impulsivity and decreases inhibition. It increases negative self-image and decreases self-esteem; deepens depression and social isolation; and rises with the amount and length of time alcohol is consumed.

 Kendall (1983) and Lester (1992)

Lower income individuals tends to commit suicide compared to better paid person.

Alcohol abuse leads to lowered self-esteem, and ultimately increased risk of suicide, through a process of negative life events such as marital separation and work problems, loss of social networks and social isolation

Phil & Smith (1983)

Many adults and adolescents believe alcohol can be used as a form of self-medication (coping mechanism), but unfortunately this effect reverses itself at higher levels of intoxication and can precipitate suicidal behaviour.

Mendelson & Rich (1993), Garlow (2002), Hansen et al (1995), Ohberg et al (1996)

Post-mortem studies have shown detectable blood alcohol in 28.3% of suicides in San Diego, 28.9% in Georgia, 20% in the Netherlands, and 35.9% in Finland

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Low socioeconomic background may influence teenager to kill themselves

Thesis

Low socioeconomic level individuals may face with a lot of stress when living in a developed or developing countries. This stress may lead to suicide thought

Boxer et al (1995)

Lower income individuals tends to commit suicide compared to better paid person.

The main cause of suicide in developing countries is because lower income individuals cannot keep up with rising living cost.

Knipe et al (2015)

Collings (2004), Gururaj et al (2004),

Kim et al (2006),

Zhang et al (2006)

Lower socioeconomic position may increase the likelihood of suicide or suicide attempts in lower and middle income countries in south asia and south east asia.

Individuals that experienced poverty, unemployment or debts that are living in highly developed countries may not be able to catch up with the rapid development.

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Psychological disorder may lead to suicide

Thesis

Individuals that have psychological disorder may see suicide as the only option when they face stress or depression.

Taylor and Stansfeld (1984)

Teenagers react to changes in their life more sensitively and more hastily.

In times of stressful events, teenagers do not know how to react wisely and tend to see suicide as the only option.

Leenaars et al (2001),

Boergers et al (1998)

Suicide attempters do not intent harm themselves.

Kok & Goh (2011)

Cheng et al (2000),

Phillips et al (2002),

Vijayakumar & Rajkumar (1999)

They just want to show how desperate they are or they just want to seek help. They also want to teach others lesson.

In Taiwan, China and India, several research showed a relationship between mental illness and suicide attempts

Stolberg et al (2002)

Most of suicide attempters showed a psychological disorder

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Issues related to marital status may have induced suicidal thought

Thesis

Either married, separated or single individuals may face with a certain level of stress and this may drive them to attempt suicide.

Pires et al (2014)

The analysis of marital status revealed that it might be both protective and a risk factor for suicide and suicide attempts.

1.         Divorced women had a rate of suicide twice as great as that for married woman.

2.         Single people isolated because of limited kinship.

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Family conflicts may also be suicide factors

Thesis

Conflicts with family members may lead to a feeling of abandonment by family members and this may lead to stress.

Kok & Goh (2011)

Family conflict give greater despair towards childs.

Most child comes from dual income family. This mean both of the parents are working. Many children are left behind and left out due to busy working parents and they feel abandoned.

Groohi et al (2006)

Study was conducted on suicide victims’ family members. Majority of the subject attempted suicide because of quarrel with family members followed with marital conflict and psychiatric disorder.

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Relationship may be a contributing factor to the suicide problem

Thesis

Failure in relationship may lead to depression and stress. This may induce suicide thought by the one who depressed

Kok & Goh (2011)

Among the factors that contribute to suicide, boy-girl relationships were among the highest ranked, especially for male participants.

This is in-line with Durkheim’s suicide theory which depicted males as always more emotionally vulnerable.

Most male use broken relationship as a reason to commit suicide.

Male are more reluctant to share their personal problems with others when they experience emotional disturbances

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Students mention that strict education by parents is the main factor in teenage suicide

Thesis

Stress from school or parents who have high expectation may create stress on students or children. Failure to meet that expectation may lead to depression and a feeling of no purpose of living.

Kok & Goh (2011)

Education is most valued in traditional Chinese families and can be traced back from Chinese Confucian beliefs, Malaysian Chinese families are no exception.

Most Chinese parents would expect high academic performance from their children and as the children; they do not want to disappoint their parent.

Kranjc et al (1998)

Poor school performance accounted for 18% of suicide attempts among Slovenian juvenile

Conclusion

Possible methods to prevent suicide

Thesis

It is not advisable to lay the blame of teenage suicidal attempts or teenage suicides onto one single factor as there are many factors that are inseparable and interrelated.

Flouri & Buchanan (2002)

Parent involvement is a protective factor as it may prevent suicide attempts.

Example includes direct interaction with child, availability to the child and responsibility to take care of the child

Tam et al (2011)

Religion may also play an important role in preventing suicide

Brown (2001)

Islamic countries tends to have one of  the lowest suicide rates in the world and this may be due to suicide is known and thought as one of the biggest sin in Islam

Kok & Goh (2011)

Friends are the most relied person by youngsters in times of need

Developing peer support group at school could be an effective way in preventing suicide

Peers may have greater impact in providing positive influences in both academic and non-academic areas