ERIC Number: EJ950971
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Apr
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9630
EISSN: N/A
Hopelessness and Suicidal Ideation among Adolescents in Two Cultures
Stewart, Sunita Mahtani; Kennard, Betsy D.; Lee, Peter W. H.; Mayes, Taryn; Hughes, Carroll; Emslie, Graham
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, v46 n4 p364-372 Apr 2005
Background: This study examines the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations among cognitive variables, depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation in Hong Kong Chinese and Caucasian American adolescents. Methods: Community adolescents (n = 2,044) ages 14-18 years from Hong Kong and the United States provided information regarding their suicidal ideation, depressive symptoms, and cognitions (self-efficacy, cognitive errors and hopelessness), at two surveys, six months apart. Results: Self-efficacy was a weak unique predictor of suicidal ideation in both cultures. Hopelessness was the strongest of cognitive variables in concurrent associations with suicidal ideation in bivariate and multivariate models, in both cultures, and in both boys and girls. Hopelessness continued to offer unique prediction when depressive symptoms were controlled, both concurrently and prospectively. Conclusions: Our results support hopelessness theories of suicidal ideation and behavior in Hong Kong, and extend the cognitive theory of suicidality to a modernized Asian culture.
Descriptors: Asian Culture, Self Efficacy, Suicide, Adolescents, Foreign Countries, Gender Differences, Epistemology, Depression (Psychology), Whites, North Americans, Case Studies, Longitudinal Studies, Symptoms (Individual Disorders), Correlation, Cognitive Processes, Prediction, Psychological Patterns, Cross Cultural Studies
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Hong Kong; United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A