Depression and Suicide

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CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION

Depression and Suicide

Brandi Preston

Washtenaw Community College

The topic that I decided to research is depression and suicide, the connections that they have with each other. I believe that suicide is a very big problem today in the world with adolescents becoming more likely to be depressed with their lives, causing teenagers to completely give up in life and take their own life. These connections of topics are so important in psychology because suicide is the second leading cause of teenagers today in America. Depression is like a drug, an addiction that can easily enter people's minds, causing the fatal factor of suicide. According to Cole (1989) in 1984, suicide moved from the third to the second leading cause of death of adolescent death. Suicide and depression are connected in a very extravagant way and the reason I chose these topics to research is because they touch me in a personal way and I believe that everyone experiences depression, or something like that in their lives here or there.

In the article, "Psychopathology of adolescent suicide: Hopelessness, coping beliefs, and depression," by David Cole we looked at two studies, similar tests but a tad different subjects. In the first study there were 300 high school students who took a variety of questionnaires including topics such as; depression, hopelessness, as well as suicidal thoughts and behavior. A total of 281 students participated since 8 dropped because of incomplete data and 11 didn't return parent consent forms. Of the 281, there were 114 boys and 167 girls. The hopelessness questionnaires included 20 true and false statements (1989) The suicide questionnaire included a very similar scale to the hopelessness questionnaires as they list 1-5 of 1 being an option for...