NCJ Number
124197
Editor(s)
G L Klerman
Date Published
1986
Length
383 pages
Annotation
This book provides information on risk factors and intervention strategies that mental health clinicians can use in addressing suicidal tendencies and depression in adolescents and young adults.
Abstract
The groundwork is laid for discussing factors in suicidal tendencies and depression in adolescents and young adults by examining development in the novice phase of early adulthood and emotional and personality development in normal adolescents and young adults. Chapters dealing with specific risk factors in suicide and depression focus on an architectural model, genetic risk factors for the affective disorders, and risk factors for major depression in young females. Other chapters addressing risk factors cover suicidal behavior in American blacks; personality, life events, and other psychosocial factors in adolescent depression and suicide; and interrelations among measures of depressive symptomatology, other measures of psychological distress, and young adult substance use. A chapter on an intervention study focuses on adolescent suicidal and self-destructive behavior, a strategy of preventive trials, and the place of college health services in the prevention of suicide and affective disorders. Overall, the volume follows a public health/epidemiologic model, in which the premise is that various risk factors for suicide among adolescents and young adults can be identified, such as loneliness, low self-esteem, drug and alcohol addiction, and factors in family history (both biological and social). 22 references, subject index.