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Young Men Speak Out

Download Young Men Speak Out

Published in 1999

A look at young men's views about depression, suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide. This report includes findings from a survey into suicidal feelings, examining young men as individuals and how they relate to their families, schools, communities and the wider world. It also looks at working towards a more sensitive response and reports what young men want as part of a solution.

 

From the introduction...

This study views adolescent depression and suicidal behaviour from the perspective of young men themselves.


From a national survey of more than 1,300 young men, two groups were identified: a wider depressed group (of 152 people) who admitted to feeling depressed often or to having suicidal thoughts or to having attempted suicide; and a smaller suicidal group (40 people) who admitted to feeling depressed often and thought about killing themselves, and had actually attempted. The findings show how these young men’s perceptions of themselves, their families and their schools differed from those who did not have such feelings.

The study adds another piece to the jigsaw of research on adolescent suicide and depression. This information will be useful to Samaritans and other agencies in their continuing work preventing unnecessary deaths in young people.