Bearman and Moody | Peer Reviewed | Research and Practice | 89  RESEARCH AND PRACTICE  Objectives. We investigated the relationship between friendships and suicidality among male and female adolescents. Methods. We analyzed friendship data on 13 465 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health to explore the relationship between friendship and suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. We controlled for known factors associated with suicidality. Results. Having had a friend who committed suicide increased the likelihood of suicidal ideation and attempts for both boys and girls. Socially isolated females were more likely to have suicidal thoughts, as were females whose friends were not friends with each other. Among adolescents thinking about suicide, suicide attempts appear largely stochastic, with few consistent risk factors between boys and girls. Conclusions. The friendship environment affects suicidality for both boys and girls. Female adolescents' suicidal thoughts are significantly increased by social isolation and friendship patterns in which friends were not friends with each other. (Am J Public Health. 2004;94:89-95) friendship patterns play in shaping adolescent suicidality. Because our sample was large, we were able to compare the patterns of risks for boys and girls separately and to model the risks of both suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. Adolescent well-being is largely the product of interactions among the multiple contexts in which adolescents are embedded. 2 Central contexts for adolescents include family, school, friendships, romantic relationships, peer groups, and larger social networks. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) provides unique data on adolescents' relationships with their friends, in that it is the only national level data set to provide information on network structure. These data allow for measurement of adolescent social network position, the quality of adolescents' social relations with peers, and the structural position adolescents occupy in the adolescent social world. Bearman 18 suggested that adolescent suicidality may be a product of network positions characterized by either relative isolation or structural imbalance (Moody J, unpublished data, 1999), and a growing body of research links social isolation to suicide. 18, 19 Researchers have known for some time that isolation from peers leads to lower estimations of self-worth and selfconfidence. 22, 23
In REF the authors conducted a similar study by investigating the relationship between friendships and suicidality among a larger sample of male and female adolescents in the US.
Suicide and friendships among American adolescents.
American journal of public health
American journal of public health
Medicine