A Comparative Study about Risk Factors Influencing Suicide Ideation between Korean and Multicultural Adolescents

Abstract

Purpose: In South Korea, suicide mortality has rapidly increased, so it has become a major public health concern. Multicultural adolescents are regarded as a high-risk group due to their situation. In this study, we compared the prevalence and risk factors of suicide ideation between Korean and multicultural adolescents. Methods: Data from the eleventh Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2015), collected by the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were statistically analyzed using the descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression. The total participants were 63,376 in numbers. They were composed of 62,649 (98.9%) Korean and 727 (1.1%) multicultural adolescents. Results: I found that the prevalence of suicide ideation was significantly higher among the multicultural adolescents (15.8%) compared with those of Korean (11.3%). The risk factors of suicide ideation in the Korean group were co-residence without family, poor perceived health status, depressive mood, high stress level, poor perceived happiness level, and experience of violence. Conversely, the risk factors of the multicultural group were smoking, depressive mood, and experience of violence. Conclusion: These findings suggest that appropriate and practical prevention strategies should focus on psychological and environmental factors in order to prevent suicide ideation and reduce suicide behavior in Korean and multicultural adolescents.