Psychological Vulnerability and Substance Abuse as Predictors of Suicide Ideation among Adolescents

A stress-vulnerability model of suicidal behavior among college students was proposed by Bonner and Rich 1, 2. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate and extend this model using a younger adolescent (i.e., high school) sample. A total of 613 students (328 females and 285 males) completed the self-report measures of life stress, depression, hopelessness, reasons for living, loneliness, alcohol and drug use, and suicidal ideation. These factors served as predictor variables in stepwise multiple regressions with suicidal ideation serving as the criterion variable. Four variables emerged as significant predictors of suicidal ideation: depression, hopelessness, few reasons for living, and problem substance use. The linear combination of these variables accounted for 52 percent of the variance in suicide ideation scores. The substance abuse variable accounted for variance in ideation scores independent of the other factors.