Suicidal thoughts among South Korean adolescents gradually decline through middle school but rise again after they enter high school, a study found. Teens with low self-esteem or high levels of aggression reported thinking about suicide more often from the first year of middle school through the final year of high school.
According to a paper titled "Change Trajectories of Adolescent Suicidal Ideation and the Longitudinal Effects of Early Psychosocial Characteristics," released on the 20th, the frequency of suicidal thoughts peaked in the second year of high school.
Using data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS), the researchers tracked changes in suicidal thinking among 2,590 adolescents who were first-year middle school students in 2018, following them until their final year of high school in 2023.
Suicidal thinking was measured using responses to the item "I feel like I want to die" on the depression scale of a brief psychiatric diagnostic inventory. Responses were rated on a four-point scale from "not at all" (1 point) to "very much so" (4 points), with higher scores indicating higher levels of suicidal thinking.
The average score fell from 1.56 in 2018, the first year of middle school, to 1.53 in the second year and 1.52 in the third. It rebounded to 1.56 in 2021, when the students entered high school, climbed to 1.58 in 2022, their second year of high school, and edged down to 1.57 in their final year.
The researchers said several developmental changes during the shift from middle school to high school — peer relationships, academic pressure, career exploration and identity formation — may have played a role.
Differences also emerged depending on adolescents' psychological and social characteristics. Teens with low self-esteem maintained relatively high levels of suicidal thinking at every survey point from the first year of middle school to the final year of high school. Those with high levels of aggression likewise showed relatively high levels throughout.
Social withdrawal had a significant effect on both the initial level of suicidal thinking and its subsequent change, while parenting attitudes were also linked to initial levels. "Adolescent suicidal ideation needs to be understood not as a condition at a single point in time but as a dynamic, developmental process that changes over time," the researchers said, advising that teens showing low self-esteem and high aggression be identified early and monitored continuously.
