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Background: This study aimed to analyze the suicidal warning signs of Korean students with different psychometric profiles based on teacher reports., Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study based on Korean school teachers' responses to the Student Suicide Report Form. In total, 546 consecutive cases of student suicide were reported from 2017 to 2020. After missing data were excluded, 528 cases were included. The report consisted of demographic factors, the Korean version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for teacher reporting, and warning signs of suicide. Frequency analysis, multiple response analysis, the χ² test, and Latent Class Analysis (LCA) were performed., Results: Based on the scores of the Korean version of the teacher-reported SDQ, the group was divided into nonsymptomatic (n = 411) and symptomatic (n = 117) groups. Based on the LCA results, four latent hierarchical models were selected. The four classes of deceased students showed significant differences in school type (χ² = 20.410, P < 0.01), physical illness (χ² = 7.928, P < 0.05), mental illness (χ² = 94.332, P < 0.001), trigger events (χ² = 14.817, P < 0.01), self-harm experience (χ² = 30.618, P < 0.001), suicide attempts (χ² = 24.072, P < 0.001), depressive symptoms (χ² = 59.561, P < 0.001), anxiety (χ² = 58.165, P < 0.001), impulsivity (χ² = 62.241, P < 0.001), and social problems (χ² = 64.952, P < 0.001)., Conclusion: Notably, many students who committed suicide did not have any psychiatric pathology. The proportion of the group with a prosocial appearance was also high. Therefore, the actual suicide warning signals were similar regardless of students' difficulties and prosocial behaviors, so it is necessary to include this information in gatekeeper education., Competing Interests: The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (© 2023 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.)

Objective: This study intended to classify subtypes of Korean adolescents with suicidal ideation based on mental health problems and to explore the relationship between such subtypes and individual-, school- and community-level factors., Method: Data from high school freshmen who participated in the 2013 school-based mental health screening test and data about school and community variables obtained from public sources were combined and analyzed. A multilevel latent profile analysis using mental health issues as class indicators that included several predictors was conducted., Results: Three latent profiles were identified: Group 1 (6.5%) had high scores for both the internalizing and externalizing problems; Group 2 (40.2%) had high scores for internalizing problems, such as depression and mood related symptoms; and Group 3 (53.3%) had lower scores for all mental health problems compared to Groups 1 and 2. Gender, peer conflict, family conflict and academic problems were significant predictors at the individual level; school dropout rate was a significant school-level variable; and percent of youth in the total population, availability of mental health services, number of social welfare facilities and percentage of the total budget devoted to education/welfare were significant community-level variables., Conclusion: The present findings suggest that adolescents with suicidal ideation can be classified into several distinct subtypes based on mental health problems. These profiles and their associated covariates will aid in the establishment of youth suicide prevention policies.

The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors for suicidal ideation in adolescents by gender and age. This study used 2013 nationwide school-based mental health screening test data from 591,303 seventh grade students and 618,271 tenth grade students in Korea. Suicidal ideation, four psychological problems, and three adverse life events were evaluated using the Adolescents Mental Health and Problem Behavior Screening Questionnaire-II. Of all students, 12.9-14.7% of the boys and 17.1-23.2% of the girls had suicidal ideation. Mood had the greatest impact on the risk for suicidal ideation and other factors also significantly increased the risk of suicidal ideation. Distractibility was positively related to suicidal ideation only in seventh grade students and behavioral problems increased suicidal ideation more in girls than in boys. Violence constituted the most powerful factor for suicidal ideation among the events; however, bullying constituted the most important event that increased suicidal ideation in seventh grade girls. All factors except 'Distractibility' increased the risk of severe suicidal ideation. The risk factors for suicidal ideation in adolescents differed by gender and age. Interventions should be made according to these characteristics to reduce suicidal ideation in adolescents.

Objectives: As South Korea has the highest incidence of completed suicides, the present study aimed to investigate the predictive power of the variables that have been associated with suicide attempts in Korean patients diagnosed with depression., Methods: Hundred participants were divided into two groups: suicide attempters (31%) and suicide non-attempters (69%). Participants with a history of more than one suicidal attempt were assigned to the suicide attempter group. A hierarchical logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the predictive strengths of the variables that were likely to be associated with suicide attempts., Results: After controlling for the effects of such variables as the severity of depressive symptoms, life stress events and impulsivity, the severity of past suicidal ideation was the most important predictive factor for discriminating suicide attempters from suicide non-attempters. The odds ratio for attempting suicide relative to not attempting suicide increased by a factor of 4.408 for each unit of increase in suicidal ideation., Conclusions: The present study suggests that the most severe suicidal ideation throughout one's entire life should not be overlooked and may be a major predictor of the risk of suicide.

Objective: This study explored the clinical characteristics and risk factors of suicidal ideation in a sample of first graders from South Korea. Children's depression and aggression and maternal depression were examined as possible risk factors., Methods: This study is a school-based, cross-sectional study of 5 elementary schools in Gunpo City, South Korea. Participants were 707 first graders (mean age, 6.54 years) and their mothers. We assessed children's depressive and aggressive symptoms using the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 (BASC-2) and maternal depression using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Two items from BASC-2 and 1 item from BDI identified children's and maternal suicidal ideation., Results: Twenty-seven (3.8%) children evidenced suicidal ideation. Children with suicidal ideation had higher mean scores of depression domain (10.11 ± 5.34 vs 4.57 ± 3.44, P < .0001) and aggression domain (7.78 ± 3.84 vs 3.80 ± 2.85, P < .0001) on BASC-2 and maternal depression (9.78 ± 6.45 vs 7.28 ± 5.38, P = .02) on BDI. In regression analysis, children's depression (odds ratio [OR], 1.19; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07-1.32; P = .001) and aggression (OR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.08-1.41; P = .002) contributed significantly to children's suicidal ideation, whereas maternal depression was not significantly related to children's suicidal ideation (OR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.92-1.06; P = .75)., Conclusions: This study demonstrated that even first graders had a considerable prevalence of suicidal ideation and that depression and aggression were associated with suicidal ideation in young children., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: This study had two main goals: to examine the structure of co-occurring peer bullying experiences among adolescents in South Korea from the perspective of victims and to determine the effects of bullying on suicidal behavior, including suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, among adolescents. Method: This study used data gathered from 4,410 treatment-seeking adolescents at their initial visits to 31 local mental health centers in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. The structure of peer bullying was examined using latent class analysis (LCA) to classify participants’ relevant experiences. Then, a binomial logistic regression adjusted by propensity scores was conducted to identify relationships between experiences of being bullied and suicidal behaviors. Results: The LCA of experiences with bullying revealed two distinct classes of bullying: physical and non-physical. Adolescents who experienced physical bullying were 3.05 times more likely to attempt suicide than those who were not bullied. Victims of (non-physical) cyber bullying were 2.94 times more likely to attempt suicide than were those who were not bullied. Conclusions: Both physical and non-physical bullying were associated with suicide attempts, with similar effect sizes. Schools and mental health professionals should be more attentive than they currently are to non-physical bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]