Can anger, impulsivity, and perceiving oneself as an inefficient problem solver be a forerunner of adolescent suicide?

The purpose of this sudy is to investigate whether 14-62 years people (352 female, 267 male) differ in thinking suicide as the first solution when they are confronted with stressfull situations and the relationship of this trend to suicide probability, problem solving skills and anger. In accordance with this purpose, several assessment instruments were used. These are: "Problem Solving Inventory", Brief Symptom Inventory", "Probability Scale", "MMPI-impulsivity Scale", 'Multidimentional Anger Scale". For this study an inventoty to investigate the solutions to problem was also developed. The open ended items in this inventory ask people the first solution they think of when they are confronted with a stressfull situation. The results have shown that presenting suicide as a first solution and suicide probability increase as problem solving skills decrease and as anger and impulsivity scores increase. Age is an important mediating variable. Those subjects who were between 14-24 years of age, had higher scores on all the assessment instruments which were used. In other words, young people seem to have less problem solving skills, more impulsivity rates and higher degrees of anger. Also when they are presented with a stressful situation, they have a greater tendency to think of suicide as the initial solution to the problem. The results have lead the investigators to propose a model, where young people between the ages of 14-24, with deficient problem solving skills, higher impulsivity rates and high anger scores can be considered as a risk group.