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Background: In South Korea, the leading cause of youth death has been suicide for about 20 years. In this study, we conducted a multi-method psychological autopsy to identify the psychiatric diagnosis, developmental history, personality traits, family history, school life, warning signs of suicide, and risk factors related to suicide for the first time in Korea. Methods: This was a postmortem, retrospective, and descriptive study of 36 adolescents who died by suicide between August 2015 and July 2021 in South Korea. We obtained qualitative and quantitative data from the Korean Psychological Autopsy of Adolescent, conducted by the Suicide and School Mental Health Institute, the official student mental health policy-focused research institute of the Korean Ministry of Education. Results: The adolescents comprised equal percentage of girls and boys. Approximately half of the deaths (55.6%) occurred at home and most (72.2%) involved jumping from a height. Most of the adolescents (97.2%) had one major psychiatric disorder before death, with depressive disorder being the most prevalent (75%). They were at a high risk for internet addiction before death. The most common personality trait was avoidance (28.6%), followed by submissiveness (27.3%). Half of the parents reported that the adolescents were satisfied with their school life and the teachers observed that they had no behavioral problems. One year before death, seven (19.4%) adolescents injured themselves and five (13.9%) had attempted suicide. Most of the deceased (80.6%) had expressed suicide warning signs to their families within one year before death. Adolescents had a long experience of family-related adverse events. Conclusions: Most of the adolescents had mental health disorders and expressed suicidal intentions using verbal and nonverbal signs. However, it was challenging for families to recognize the risk signs because of adolescents' personality traits or a good school life. To prevent adolescent suicide, adolescents, parents, and teachers need to be educated to recognize signs of suicide warning signs and equipped to guide adolescents to appropriate care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study explored whether religiosity/spirituality has a protective role against negative caregiving outcomes, in a large multicenter nationwide sample of caregivers of patients with dementia in South Korea. Additionally, this study was the first to examine whether religiosity/spirituality could affect caregiving outcomes according to the various religious affiliations of caregivers. Methods: The study was conducted on a sample of 476 caregivers of patients with dementia participated in the Clinical Research Center for Dementia of South Korea (CREDOS). We examined the moderating effect of each of the three dimensions of religiosity/spirituality (organizational religious activity, ORA; non-organizational religious activity, NORA; intrinsic religiosity, IR) on the relationship between activities of daily living (ADL) of patients with dementia and caregiving burden and depressive symptoms of caregivers, using a series of hierarchical regression analyses. In addition, these analyses were conducted according to the religious affiliations of the caregivers. Results: ORA, NORA, and IR of religiosity/spirituality alleviated the effect of ADL of patients on caregiving burden. ORA and IR moderated the relationship between ADL of patients and depressive symptoms of caregivers. These moderating effects of religiosity on caregiving outcomes were different according to various religious groups. Conclusion: We have identified religiosity/spirituality as a protective factor for caregivers of patients with dementia. The sub-dimensions of religiosity as moderators were different by religious affiliations of caregivers. Further studies are needed to investigate the specific religiosity-related factors which could positively impact the mental health of the caregivers of patients with dementia by religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Depression and anxiety are emotional difficulties that are common among adolescents. Adolescents suffering from depression and anxiety can exhibit problems such as antisocial behavior, aggression, and academic slump. This study aimed to explore the factors influencing adolescents' depression and anxiety during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic., Methods: This study examined the data from an online student health survey conducted by the Ministry of Education in 2022. The survey participants were 131194 students ranging from the first grade of middle school to the third grade of high school. The influence of each variable on depression and anxiety was examined., Results: Factors that predicted depression and anxiety were sex (female), grade level (higher), financial difficulties (existing or unknown), physical activity (higher), sleep time (shorter), media usage time (higher), family/friends relationship (worse), and change in the health status of family, friends, and oneself due to COVID-19 (worse)., Conclusion: These results may help identify patterns of depression and anxiety among adolescents caused by COVID-19 and maximize the intervention effect., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.)