Contrasts Between Young Males Dying by Suicide, Those Dying From Other Causes and Those Still Living: Observations From the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health.

UNLABELLED: Utilizing Add Health longitudinal data, we compared 21 male suicide casualties to 10,101 living respondents identifying suicide correlates.

METHOD: 21 suicide decedents completed surveys in 1994/1995 (Wave 1) and 11 completed at Wave 3; responses were compared with Chi-square and oneway ANOVA tests.

RESULTS

Suicide decedents were prone to higher delinquency and fighting at Wave 1, but not at Wave 3. At Wave 1 suicide decedents remained undistinguished from living respondents in depression, self-esteem, and drug uses. Yet, after Wave 3, the 11 respondents dying by suicide showed significantly higher depression, drug use and lower self-esteem.

CONCLUSION

Delinquency trends can readily understood, but more complex causes are needed to account for unexpected changes in self-esteem, depression and drug uses.