Parents don ’t always realize that their teen is suicidal

Parents like to think that they know what is going on with their children — and that they would know if their teen was suicidal. However, research shows that this is not always the case. In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers interviewed more than 5,000 adolescents ages 11 to 17. In those interviews, they asked them if they had ever thought about killing themselves — or if they had ever thought a lot about death or dying. The parents were asked if they believed that their teens had ever thought about killing themselves or had thought a lot about death or dying. There wasn’t a whole lot of match-up. Half of the parents of the adolescents who thought of killing themselves were unaware — as were three-quarters of the parents of adolescents who thought often about death. If you think about it, this isn’t all that surprising, for lots of reasons. Teens may not always realize how bad they are feeling, and may not want to tell their parents when they do — both for fear of worrying them, and also because of uncertainty about how their parents might react. Parents may miss signs of depression in their teens, or quite genuinely misinterpret them or attribute them to something innocent; after all, it’s natural to want to believe that your child is fine, rather than thinking that they might be suicidal. And given how much drama can be intrinsic to the life of a teen, it’s understandable that parents could misinterpret statements about death or dying a...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Adolescent health Children's Health Mental Health Parenting Source Type: blogs