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Thesis (M. Psych. Clin.)--University of Newcastle, 1995. / Department of Psychology, University of Newcastle. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-78). Also available online.

Background: Suicidal thoughts affect 12% of Canadian adolescents. Previous research has linked many factors to suicidality but has not considered how these factors may act together or their effect on non-mental health outcomes. Methods: I used the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth to construct predictive models for suicidal thinking. Recursive partitioning models were constructed and the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) for suicidal thoughts and secondary outcomes was calculated. I tested the models in the Avon Longitudinal Survey of Parents and Children. Results: Predictive model sensitivity was 24.2%, specificity was 89.8%, PPV was 24.7%, and NPV was 89.5% and had similar accuracy in the second dataset. The models were better at predicting other adverse outcomes compared to suicidal ideas. Conclusion: Exposure to multiple risk factors is predictive of several poor outcomes in adolescence including suicidal thoughts.

Although the suicide literature is replete with studies approaching risk assessment from the standpoint of the external observer, research into the intrapsychic mechanisms involved is rare. This study investigated the importance of hope, threat, competence, succorance, helplessness, and control among inpatients hospitalized for suicidal behavior.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

The decision by teenagers either to consider or to attempt to commit suicide was addressed in this research. Covariance structure analysis (LISREL) techniques were used to examine the influence of four social-psychological factors (psychic disruption, delinquency, family disruption, and school problems) upon a suicidal orientation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes vita. Title from PDF of title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 126 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Background: Substantial attention has been given to studying suicides among those who had been in contact with healthcare providers. However, effective suicide prevention must target both users (contact) and non-users of healthcare services (non-contact). The non-contact group has been under-researched and prevention programs are often designed based on studies that over-rely on samples of the contact group. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this thesis aims to retrospectively explore and explain the profiles and service-use patterns of the non-contact group alongside service utilization models. The quantitative studies, which aimed to identify factors associated with the non-contact groups, were conducted based on the samples drawn from the psychological autopsy study of suicides (aged 15-59) in Hong Kong (2003-2005). Study 1: Portfolio analysis of the non-contact group with psychiatric illnesses Considering psychiatric illness as the basic “evaluated need” for psychiatric service-use, it was controlled for in the comparison between the contact (n=52; 43.7%) and non-contact group (n=67; 56.3%). The non-contact group was associated with having relatively stable employment, a higher level of problem solving ability, unmanageable debts, and non-psychotic disorders. They were evidently different from the contact group, while accounting for a larger proportion of the suicide population. Study 2: Study of suicides without psychiatric illnesses Twenty-nine suicide cases without any psychiatric diagnoses were compared to live controls without diagnoses (n=135), and live controls (n=15) and deceased (n=86) with non-psychotic diagnoses. They were not significantly different to the groups with psychiatric illness on the level of impact from various life events, either acute or chronic, including relationship, family, legal, physical, and job insecurity. However, with fewer signs of detectable abnormalities such as previous suicide attempts, they were not given timely attention from healthcare or psychosocial services. Alternative preventive measures are suggested to address the service needs arising from their negative life events. Study 3: Study of suicides with distress from job insecurity Suicides who were employed at time of death tended to make no contact with healthcare services. They were single, lived alone, earned less income, and suffered from depression. Chronic job insecurity, which was partially mediated by psychiatric illness, was found to influence their non-contact pattern. This could be due to fear of job loss or being stigmatized at work if they decided to receive treatment. Strengthening mental health programs and financial management in workplaces is suggested. Study 4: Study of perceptions towards pathway to care among patients survived from near-lethal suicide attempts The personal accounts of patients that survived from near-lethal suicide attempts revealed that the higher their suicide intent, the lower their perceived needs and the greater their resistance to receiving healthcare services. Themes associated with their non-contact pattern were irrelevancy, non-usefulness and self-reliance. Their views were detouring or against the pathway to care. Conclusion: The non-contact pattern of suicides cannot be explained by conventional service-use models. They showed a distinctive profile from the contact group, and it is suggested that they be helped through proactive prevention programs and / or population-based preventive measures, e.g. restriction of suicide means. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This qualitative study attempted to develop a process theory of suicidal behaviour. The Arthur Inman diary, which documents the thoughts and feelings of a suicidal individual (Arthur Crew Inman) who eventually died by suicide, was the primary data source from which the theory emerged. Aspects of the qualitative grounded theory procedure were used to develop the theory. Purposeful intensity sampling, theoretical sampling, open and discriminant sampling were applied at different stages of the research process. In addition, the constant comparative method, which forms the hallmark of grounded theory procedures, was an integral part of the analytic procedure. The emergent process theory, which was firmly grounded in the primary data source and extant literature sources, hopefully offers a new paradigm within which suicidal behaviour can be understood. It proposes the processional aspects of suicide and puts forward phases, which a potentially suicidal individual goes through. It thus attempts to bridge a major gap in the study of suicidal behaviour by providing dynamic pathways that link vulnerability to suicide with the suicide act. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sci.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.