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Suicide in the Young: Implications for Policy and Programming

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Behavior Disorders of Adolescence

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Abstract

During the past several years, increasing attention has focused on suicidal behavior among young people. Parents, educators, mental health professionals, suicidologists, and young persons themselves have expressed deep concern about the increasing trend in the rates of youth suicide. In response to these expressions, task forces examining youth suicide have been established; national conferences on youth suicide prevention have been held; legislation has been passed mandating school-based suicide prevention programs; centers for the prevention of youth suicide have been created; curricula for teaching suicide awareness in schools have been developed; and time, energy, and money have been devoted to research on the etiology and treatment of suicide in the young. While some have argued that not enough is yet known about suicide for broad-based suicide prevention programs to be developed and implemented, we nonetheless are morally obligated to synthesize the clinical, evaluative, and basic research data collected to date, and on that basis develop a comprehensive strategy to prevent the self-destruction of our youth. To this end, the intent of the present paper is to propose a conceptual framework within which suicidal behavior in the young can be understood and from which social policy can be derived that can have a significant impact on youth suicidal behavior.

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Authors
  1. Ronald J. Dyck
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Robert J. McMahon

  2. Department of Psychology, Queen’s University and Beechgrove Children’s Centre, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Ray DeV. Peters

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Dyck, R.J. (1990). Suicide in the Young: Implications for Policy and Programming. In: McMahon, R.J., DeV. Peters, R. (eds) Behavior Disorders of Adolescence. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3734-2_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3734-2_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6662-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-3734-2

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