Peer-reviewed article
Suicide attempts among youth attending special education centres: risk and protective factors.
Pisarska A, Borucka A, Ostaszewski K ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined risk and protective factors for suicide attempts among 1,730 adolescents aged 12-19 attending special education centres in Poland. Depressive symptoms, sensation-seeking, violence, and cyberbullying were identified as key risk factors, with some differences between boys and girls. The findings suggest that prevention programmes should focus on early identification of youth experiencing depression and violence, and training staff in brief interventions for at-risk young people.
Key points
- Depressive symptoms, sensation-seeking tendencies, and experience of violence and cyberbullying were associated with suicide attempts across both sexes
- Boys showed additional risk from stomach medication use and listening to music in leisure time
- Girls showed additional risk from domestic conflicts/violence and use of medicine for negative emotional states
- Playing computer games appeared protective for boys only; no protective factors were identified for girls
- Staff training in brief interventions for at-risk youth is recommended
Limitations
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot establish causation or temporal relationships between risk factors and suicide attempts. The findings are limited to adolescents in special education centres in Poland and may not generalise to other populations or settings.
Abstract
Purpose Adolescents studying in special education centres are a group at particular risk of suicidal behaviour. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to identify risk/protective factors associated with suicide attempts among students aged 12-19 years (N = 1730) who attended Youth Sociotherapy Centres (YSC) and Youth Correctional Centres (YCC) in Poland. Methods Auditory self- administered surveys were conducted as part of school lessons with procedures in place to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of the data. Hierarchical linear regression was used to analyse the relationship between the frequency of suicide attempts and a set of risk and protective factors. Results The results indicate that the risk factors identified as associated with the frequency of suicide attempts were depressive symptoms, sensation-seeking tendencies and having experienced violence and cyberbullying from peers. Among the risk factors confirmed only for boys were the ongoing use of medication for stomach ache, and also listening to music in leisure time. In turn, the risk factors that were confirmed only among girls were domestic conflicts/violence and the use of medicine for nega-tive emotional states. Playing computer games appeared to be a protective factor, but only for boys; no protective factors were identified for girls. Conclusions Preventive efforts should be aimed at early identification of youth at risk of depression, peer or domestic violence as well as training YSC/YCC staff in brief interventions addressed to young people at risk of suicide.