Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the influences of school-related stress, conflicts with parents, and conflicts with friends on the suicidal ideation of Korean male and female adolescents. A total of 837 male and female enrolled students were selected from 6 high schools located in Gyunggi Province for the survey. The results are as follows. For male students, school-related stress ha as significant influence on the suicidal ideation while conflicts with parents did not and these two do not have any interaction effect. For female students, school-related stress and also conflicts with parents have an influence on suicidal ideation but these two do not have any interaction effect. For male students, conflicts with friends have a significant influence on suicidal ideation but there is no interaction effect between school-related stress and conflicts with friends. For female students, conflicts with friends have a significant influence on suicidal ideation and with higher rates of friend conflicts showed an higher increase in the rate of suicidal ideation than the group with a lower rate. This study implies that the tremendous school-related stress that high school students feel has a close relation with suicidal ideation and in addition, for female adolescents, both conflicts with parents and trouble with peer relationship are more significant risk factors in suicidal ideation. (Korean J Str Res 2009;17:389∼398)

• Keywords: Adolescents, Suicidal ideation, School stress, Conflicts, Parent relationship, Friend relationship