Chapter 15: Suicide, Schools, and The Young Adolescent

Compared with the adolescent years of their parents’ generation, young adolescents today face unique challenges. Wading through an erratic and volatile time emotionally, physically, psychologically, and socially, they face fears and worries of dire importance and impending doom. Cultural and global concerns have slowly and disproportionately seeped into their lives, replacing the simplicity of age-appropriate concerns. They fear imminent attack (i.e., 9/11 attacks on NYC), global war, and an economically unstable society—no longer futuristic issues to ponder, but everyday realities. Materialism has caused financial strains on families, creating stressful environments and dysfunctional relationships that impinge upon the adolescent’s ability to negotiate their own peer relationships. Fears of school violence and bombings place students in vulnerable positions, which ultimately can impact their willingness and ability to learn (Associated Press, 2006; Dwyer, Osher & Warger, 1998). In 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that over half of all school students witnessed bullying, physical or sexual attacks or robbery at school; and about 1 out of 10 worried about being the victim of an attack. In fact, young adolescents have had to witness this shift as they watch their own peer group become the perpetrators.