Factors Related to Suicidal Ideation in Adolescents According to Types of Stress

This study aimed to identify the factors associated with suicidal ideation by classifying adolescents into three groups: no stress, interpersonal stress, as well as academic and career stress.

Using the data from the 16th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey (2020), 15,343 adolescents were included in the study, and their socio-demographic characteristics as well as physical and psychological factors were assessed. A complex sample logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with suicide.

The following factors were significantly associated with suicide: fatigue recovery by sleep, body mass index, physical activity, and depression in the no stress group; current school, academic grade, drinking, depression, loneliness, and anxiety in the interpersonal stress group; and gender, current school, academic grade, father’s educational level, drinking, fatigue recovery by sleep, depression, loneliness, subjective health, smartphone overdependence, as well as anxiety in the academic and career stress group.

To prevent suicide among adolescents, it is necessary to consider these factors when developing educational policies.