Depression and Suicidal Ideation Among Korean American Youth

In 2013, there were14,247 suicide in South Korea an average of 40 suicide each day out of 40 million population of the country. Suicide rate is 33.3 suicides per 100,000 that ranked the highest suicide rate among OECD countries. That is, more than 2 times of the average OECD countries suicide rate which is 12.4 per 100,000.Regrettably South Korea has been ranked the highest suicide rates of consecutive 10 years. Suicide is the first leading cause of death between the ages of 10 to 24. In 2001, suicide rate among Korean youth aged 10 to 19 was 3.19 per 100,000. After a decade in 2011, it rose to 5.58 per 100,000 which is 57.2% increase. This number is significant since suicide rate from 20 to 64 in 2001 was 16.96 to 33.58 in 2011 which is 50.5% increase. This indicates that increase of Korean youth suicide rate is much faster than that of adults.

Various sources of media reported on suicides soaring among Korean American immigrants in US. For example, one article shed a light on increasing number of suicide rate among Korean immigrant reside in New York on contrary to decreasing suicides in New York City in general. It wrote this extraordinary phenomenon actually mirrors suicide increase in South Korea. It reported reasons for suicide among Korean immigrants include low satisfactions of immigrant life, economic difficulty, lack of social network. For Korean immigrant youth, academic pressure and failure to get into top schools were also huge part of reasons for suicides. In this sense, Korean immigrant youth are in extremely vulnerable state to be easily exposed to suicide ideation and many mental health problems.

 Twelve, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Korean American youth (ages 10 to 24) who were diagnosed with major depressive disorder history of with or without suicidal ideation. Participants were recruited via posted fliers and email recruitments at two agencies that is particularly serving Asian American population.

Interviews revealed that most of Korean American youth expressed their depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation resulting from failing to deal with their parent’s various parenting styles. Also, Korean parents’ common rhetorical usage of “Juk-Go-Sip-da (I want to kill myself)” leaves Korean American youth with feeling of trauma and further deepen disconnection between parents and youth. lack of help seeking behavior caused by stigma among Korean immigrant population is huge problem. most of Korean immigrant parents refuse for seek help for mental illness but to turn to pastors because of the beliefs that mental health treatment record will leave negative records on their school reports which will hinder them going into prestige university. 

Family engagement intervention should be implemented to educate warm, consistent and supportive parenting style will provide strong support for depressed and suicidal youth. Also, gatekeeper training is important which can stop depressed adolescents from pursuing further negative action. For Korean American youth, gatekeeper trainings for pastors at church, peer groups at school and after school programs and institutes, teachers at school and after school programs and institutes are strongly needed.