ther drugs. 12 of 28 (42.9%)
adolescents died while engaging in risky driving behaviour.
Discussion
The main finding of this study was the adolescents who died by suicide and
risk-taking could be classified into three distinct groups: deaths resulting from
enduring difficulties, pivotal life events and adolescent experimentation. Almost 70%
experienced enduring family, mental health or school-related difficulties. These
adolescents present particular challenges to practitioners, often coming to the
attention of services after dysfunction is severe and entrenched. It is widely
acknowledge that efforts need to be directed towards early intervention and
prevention (Patton ＆ Burns, 2000). Innovative methods are needed to assist
practitioners to convert this knowledge into practice.
The adolescents who committed suicide in response to a pivotal life event all
experienced events that appear to vary in severity. Regardless of the type of event that
was experienced, each was perceived as life-changing by the adolescent. In
supporting adolescents, parents, teachers and practitioners need to be mindful that
issues that may appear trivial to an adult can be insurmountable to an adolescent
experiencing them for the first time.
Two final points are of notes from the findings regarding the adolescent
experimentation group. First, during adolescence experimentation is the norm;
risk-taking is typically viewed as a part of “growing up” (Baumrind, 1987; Kelly,
2000) and few adolescents move from experimental to chronic risk-taking (Moore＆
Parsons, 2000). Nevertheless, this study has shown that even typical adolescent
risk-taking can have fatal consequences. Second, in this study, fatal risk-taking was
predominantly a male phenomenon. All but two of the adolescent experimentation
3
fatalities were of males. Prevention strategies must address the contributions of
adolescent development and gender to risk-taking behaviour.
In conclusion, this study provides evidence that adolescents who die by suicide and
risk-taking are not homogenous groups. The descriptive nature of this study, however,
limits the conclusions that can be drawn. The use of more refined analyses, such as
cluster analysis, would be an important development. Similar international research
would be valuable to determine whether the same suicide and risk-taking groups exist
in other jurisdictions.
