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Article: Understanding adolescent suicide: a psychosocial interpretation of developmental and contextual factors.
- Article from:
- Adolescence
- Article date:
- December 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Libra Publishers, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Suicide is a complex problem with ideology or beliefs as a common element that interacts idiosyncratically with any number of emergent identities pressing on the individual. One factor underlying suicide concerns the failure to construct a healthy identity. Much of the research on this issue focuses on adolescence, the period of time when individuals are most engaged in developing a healthy identity (Erikson, 1968; Coleman & Remafedi, 1989; Bar-Joseph & Tzuriel, 1990; Newton, 1995). Erikson (1968) noted that in extreme instances of delayed and prolonged adolescence, complaints of "I give up" and "I quit" are more than signs of mild depression--they are expressions of ...