NCJ Number
206633
Journal
Youth & Society Volume: 36 Issue: 1 Dated: September 2004 Pages: 30-55
Editor(s)
Kathryn G. Herr
Date Published
September 2004
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with street youth attempted to provide a better understanding of the phenomenon of suicide among street youth and the meanings suicide held for them.
Abstract
Research shows that the majority of street youth come from disrupted and dysfunctional families in which poverty, divorce, domestic violence, parental drug abuse, and criminality are commonplace, resulting in a high rate of suicide among street youth due to the subsequent problems they have in coping with the street environment. Through semi-structured interviews with 80 street youth in agencies and on the streets of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and focusing on suicide, this study attempts to illuminate themes and factors that are central to these youths’ understandings of suicide. The narratives of these participants suggest that their emotional experiences linked to suicide are feelings of worthlessness, loneliness, hopelessness, and most centrally, feeling/being trapped. The feeling of being trapped or helpless may be a subjective experience underlying other constructs, such as coping failure, that are more frequently assessed in research on adolescent suicide. The study supports the finding of the centrality of the trapped experience to suicide along with worthlessness, loneliness, and hopelessness as mediators between life events and suicidal thoughts and actions. The study points to a need to examine the broader social processes involved in suicide among homeless youth that have yet to be adequately addressed. References