Adolescent suicide: An ecological approach

Adolescent suicide, which has been ranked among the top 10 causes of death in the world, is an issue of increasing concern to school psychologists, educators, and parents. Here an ecological approach is proposed to enhance our understanding of how personal, interpersonal, and sociocultural factors contribute to the increased risk for suicide among adolescents. The ecological approach allows exploration of how adolescent suicide is determined by multiple factors related to the adolescent's personal history or ontogenic development (e.g., depression), the influences of those individuals with whom adolescents have immediate contact with, or the microsystems (e.g., family and school), the larger social units, or the exosystems, that indirectly influence adolescents (e.g., media), and the larger culture or macrosystems (e.g., cultural differences in attitudes about suicide). In this article the interaction of several factors within and between the permeable boundaries of each of the layers of the ecological paradigm is also highlighted. Finally, examples of intervention and prevention strategies at each level of the system are set forth. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.