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Defined as the deliberate act of inflicting fatal self-injury with the intention of death, suicide stands as a profound and urgent concern, particularly among adolescents. This vulnerable demographic is struggling with numerous societal pressures, academic demands, and emotional challenges, making them especially susceptible to the risks of suicide. Nowhere is this vulnerability more apparent than in South Korea, which consistently reports one of the highest suicide rates globally, with adolescents comprising a significant portion of those affected.
Given this reality, our research examined the evolving dynamics of adolescent suicide within the framework of South Korea. This research trend study explored the changing dynamics of adolescent suicide and underscored the interrelated factors affecting adolescent suicide across individual, familial, school, peer, and neighborhood domains in South Korean literature.
Methods
Data Collection: A total of 486 peer-reviewed articles published in Korean between January 1992 and December 2021 were gathered using two search terms: "suicide" and "adolescent," along with their synonymous terms.
Data Analysis: Our analysis proceeded in three stages. Initially, during the data preprocessing stage, we normalized the text and removed stop-words. Next, we conducted unigram frequency analysis to identify keywords that frequently co-occur within the text. Lastly, bigram frequency analysis was employed to determine the frequency of unique word pairs and their overall interconnectedness within the text.
Results
Unigram keyword analysis of related words showed that in South Korean literature, the term “family” frequently appeared with environment, adolescent, school, violence, and maltreatment; “social” most frequently co-appeared with support, issues, culture, relationship, and welfare; “school” occurred with violence, life, suicide, and teacher. As visualized in the Bigram network plot, adolescent suicide encompasses a spectrum of topics, including suicide ideation, attempts, behavior, and impulsivity. Over the past 30 years, a greater emphasis has been on specifying risk factors (e.g., depression and anxiety, academic stress, school violence) than identifying protective factors (e.g., social support). Over time, the individual/psychopathological view on adolescent suicide in the 1990s and early 2000s (e.g., alcohol dependency, behavioral problems, depression patients, mental disorders) gradually shifted towards a more social/preventive approach (e.g., suicide prevention, program development, family environment, social support, social community).
Conclusion and Implications
The greater focus on the risk factors in adolescent suicide research indicates a need for a shift in implementing a strength-based approach that detects unique protective factors concerning the “reason-to-live” for adolescents rather than merely eliminating factors related to the “reason-to-die.” An overview of the knowledge structure in adolescent suicide research may highlight the complexity of this issue, further furnishing scientific evidence to inform strategies for intervention against adolescent suicide through South Korea’s National Plan on Suicide.