Living Conditions of Adolescents Who Have Attempted Suicide in Mexico

Rosario Valdez-Santiago,Luz Arenas-Monreal,Anabel Rojas-Carmona,Alma Lilia Cruz-Bañares

doi:10.3390/ijerph17165990

Abstract

Suicidal behavior represents a complex public health problem, with a rising number of suicide attempts registered among Mexican adolescents. We undertook a qualitative study in order to understand the living conditions of adolescents who had attempted to take their lives in five Mexican states. We interviewed 37 adolescents who had engaged in suicide attempts in the year prior to our study. To code and analyze the information, we defined the following three categories of living conditions as social determinants of health for adolescents: poverty and vulnerability, education, and health care. To this end, we followed the methodology proposed by Taylor and Bogdan, and used Atlas.ti 7.5.18 software for analyses. Among our findings, we noted that poverty, manifested primarily as material deprivation, rendered the daily lives of our interviewees precarious, compromising even their basic needs. All the young people analyzed had either received medical, psychological, and/or psychiatric care as outpatients or had been hospitalized. School played a positive role in referring adolescents with suicidal behavior to health services; however, it also represented a high-risk environment. Our findings highlight the urgent need to implement a national intersectoral strategy as part of comprehensive public policy aimed at improving the health of adolescents in Mexico.

Highlights

The complex phenomenon of suicidal behavior poses a critical public health problem.With approximately 800 thousand individuals taking their lives every year, suicide has been identified as the second leading cause of death worldwide among young people between 15 and 19 years of age [1].Studies in Mexico have reported a systematic increase in suicidal behavior— suicide attempts—among adolescents [2,3,4]
According to Borges et al, suicide deaths spiraled by 275% from 1970 to 2007, among those in the 15–29 age bracket [4]. Given their complexity and their relevance as a precursor of death by suicide, we sought to gain a better understanding of suicide attempts from the standpoint of the social determinants of health (SDH)
Echoing findings reported by Sharma [22], our study found that harassment and school fights were common experiences for adolescents who attempted suicide

Summary

Introduction

The complex phenomenon of suicidal behavior poses a critical public health problem.With approximately 800 thousand individuals taking their lives every year, suicide has been identified as the second leading cause of death worldwide among young people between 15 and 19 years of age [1].Studies in Mexico have reported a systematic increase in suicidal behavior— suicide attempts—among adolescents [2,3,4]. According to Borges et al, suicide deaths spiraled by 275% from 1970 to 2007, among those in the 15–29 age bracket [4] Given their complexity and their relevance as a precursor of death by suicide, we sought to gain a better understanding of suicide attempts from the standpoint of the social determinants of health (SDH). These have been defined as the “circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life . These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at the global, national and local levels,” as well as by the policies implemented in this regard [5]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion