Adolescent suicidal ideation

Adolescent suicidal ideation and its relationship to other variables was ta pped by a self-report questionnaire administered to 88 high school seniors. Eighteen percent responded positively to the statement "sometimes I feel s uicidal." Those who reported suicidal ideation were found to differ from th ose who did not on a number of variables, including family relationships (q uality of relationship with mother, intimacy with parents, and closeness to siblings), family history of depression (maternal depression), peer relati ons (quality of peer relationships, popularity, and number of friends), emo tional well-being (happiness, anger, and depression), drug use (cigarettes, marijuana, and cocaine), and grade point average. Stepwise regression indi cated that happiness explained 46% of the variance in suicidal ideation, an d number of friends, anger, and marijuana use explained an additional 20%, for a total of 66% of the variance. While 34% of the variance remained unex plained, it is suggested that the questions used to measure these four vari ables be included in global screenings to identify adolescents at risk for suicidal ideation.