Depression, Hopelessness, Emotional Autonomy and Hardiness as Predictors of Suicide Ideations among Male Adolescents

Adolescence is a transformational phase of one’s life, given the physical and psychological changes that occur during this phase. Adolescent suicides are on a rise and adolescents have thoughts and cognitions about suicidal behavior. Suicide ideations involve thoughts related to desire, intent or method of committing suicide. A very important characteristic of suicide ideation is that it fluctuates and is fluid in nature. There is a rapid onset but a high level of unpredictability. Research on suicide ideation has established strong links between depression and hopelessness and suicidal ideations. Depressed adolescents are reported to be highly vulnerable to suicide ideations and these ideations can be strengthened by social reinforcement. In addition to depression and hopelessness, familial variables like autonomy from parents or personality characteristics such as hardiness are also important for the outcomes like suicide ideation. The present study aims to find depression, hopelessness, emotional autonomy and hardiness as predictors of suicide ideation in male adolescents. A sample of 158 males in the age group of 15 – 22 years is taken. Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Steer and Brown, 1996),Beck Hopelessness Scale (Beck et al., 1974), Personal Views Survey (Kobasa and Kahn, 1982), Emotional Autonomy Scale (Steinberg and Silverberg, 1986) and Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (Beck, Steer and Ranieri, 1988) are used to collect the data. The data is first factor analysed so as to obtain independent factors. The factor scores from this factor are further used in linear regression in order to predict suicide ideation in male adolescents. Regression analysis revealed that the Cognitive-Personality factor is a significant predictor of suicide ideation. The obtained results have been elucidated.