A plan for promoting the resiliency of suidical adolescents

Abstract

This review of literature and projected study will explore the need for an investigation into the understanding of, the sources of support for, and resiliency for adolescents who have contemplated, but not attempted suicide. It will also outline the process used to obtain and interview youth for a pilot study. It is hypothesized that students draw their resiliency from many sources that are connected to relationships, such as support and open communication either with parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers, pastors, mentors, or friends. It is also hypothesized that students feel an internal sense of being needed or valued by someone or by themselves in a way which gives them the strength to carry on for another day. The process outlined here will provide for a qualitative study that will clarify both the sources and types of resilience to be identified for the testing of these two hypotheses. A results and discussion section will detail difficulties the author encountered in carrying a full-length pilot study of resilience in suicidal prone adolescents. Because of current conditions in U.S. schools, prospective researchers may expect school personnel to consider carefully the risks they perceive as attendant upon a study of this kind. The methodology section of the paper has also been adapted to reflect a proposed study rather than a retrospective research study.