Teen suicide occurs when a person below the age of 21 ends their life. Several risk factors contribute to this act among teenagers with the major ones being emotional turbulence and social hostility. In emotional turmoil, family turmoil, fragile self-esteem, and sexual orientation among others add up as some of the reasons to teen suicide. On the other hand, social hostility which includes drug abuse, social isolation, and violent images from media lead to these suicides.
According to Kohlberg’s theory of stages of moral development, other people’s opinion matter a lot and this may lead to one conforming to their expectations. The urge to meeting these expectations leads to confusion, which pushes teens to suicide (Blum, 1988). Gilligan’s theory of caring argued that increased stress seems to be one of the variables adding to adolescent suicide. Gilligan adds that a teenage should make decisions based on social and self-environment that one lives (Coon, Mitterer, & Martini, 2019). Erickson’s psychological stages theory reasons that the psychosocial crisis in intimacy and isolation makes adolescents consider themselves as failures lead to suicide. These theories confirm that to emotional and social turbulence as well as separation causes teens to commit suicide.
Bullied adolescents end up getting depressed; feeling as if they are of no worth and hopeless. A teen who is a victim of bullying is vulnerable to committing suicide. Such individuals should be assisted to prevent them from feeling contemplating suicidal thought. As per Gilligan’s theory of care, being available psychologically and physically is good for such a victim (Blum, 1988). These aspects allow counselors to communicate and offer their help to bullied individuals by assisting them in accepting the situation, healing, and moving on rather than having suicidal feelings.
References
- Blum, L. A. (1988). Gilligan and Kohlberg: Implications for moral theory. Ethics, 98(3), 472-491.
- Coon, D., Mitterer, J. O., & Martini, T. (2019). Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind and behavior (15th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning
