1. Beautrais, A. (1999). Risk factors for suicide and
attempted suicide among young people. In
National youth suicide prevention strategy:
Setting the evidence-based research agenda for
Australia (a literature review) (pp. 113–278).
Canberra: Department of Health and Aged Care,
Commonwealth of Australia.
Kiuru, H.(2015). A story of tragedy. The life of
young people- ended through suicide. As told by
the parents. Academic dissertation thesis.
Finland, Turku: University of Turku.
Maple, M. (2005). Parental bereavement and
youth suicide: An assessment of the literature.
Australian Social Work, 58, 179–187.
- The parents’ critical agency increases the visibility of the complex relationship
between individuals and society. The service system is developed from the
perspective of empirical data. The importance of psychosocial work is
emphasized in professional practice.
- In terms of suicide prevention work, an important element consists of
speaking and the handling of matters in the family, during a young person's
life, as well as after their death. A large portion of the young people had
confessed their suicidal thoughts to a friend or sibling, but the information
had remained private. Many of the young people had also spoken of death
with their parents around. The suicide of a young person may, in turn, lead to
a difficult atmosphere in the family, in some families ”silence” had become a
permanent state.
- The research shows that studies into sensitive issues are important and that
the need for studies into suicide, in a qualitative and cultural context, is
significant.
- The research examines the act of suicide
committed by young Finnish people, from the
perspective of human and social dimensions.
- The task of the research is to attain the
subjective experiences of parents, whose children
have committed suicide.
- The aim is to determine (1) what kind of
contents and meanings do the lives and suicides
of the young people gain through the narratives
made by the parents, (2) in which manner had
the parents been aware of omens concerning
the upcoming suicides of the youngsters and
how had defensive factors been formed on the
basis of these such omens, and (3) what kind of
meanings have the assistance work gained in the
part of the narratives related to omens and
protective factors.
- The research localized sensitive topics to be
dealt with by the ranks of social work research
and belongs to the research traditions of psycho-
social social work.
- The research is aimed towards promoting the
prevention of suicide. The starting point is the
development of the service system of assistance
work, aided by experience-based data.
- The type of research used is narrative qualitative
research.
- The main source of material is narrative interviews
with the parents of 14 youngsters who had
committed suicide.
- Supplementary material is composed of email
discussions with the parents, as well as additional
written material provided by them, which includes
the parents' own memoirs, as well as diary entries
and farewell letters written by the young people who
had committed suicide.
- The research involved 11 mothers and three fathers-
representing middle-class families. The research
describes the lives of five young women and nine
young men, as well as the ending of their lives
through suicide.
- The age of death of the young people varied
between 15-31 years old. The time period since the
parents had experienced their loss ranged from six
months to 26 years.
- The analysis is broadly understood as being
grounded. The analysis is based on exploiting the
possibilities provided by narrative and content
analysis, whilst also drawing on a biographical
perspective.
- Structuring was used to organise the parents' reports
into three stories, which are the young person’s life
story, the story of the tragedy and the parents’ own
survival story. The stories also play a part in shaping
the analysis.
“A story of tragedy. The life of young people- ended through
suicide.
As told by the parents”
Hanna Kiuru, Senior Lecturer, Doctor of Social Sciences (D.Soc.Sc.), Social work
HUMAK - University of Applied Sciences, Turku, Finland
e-mail address: hanna.kiuru@humak.fi, mp.: + 358 40 737 6468
Introduction
Material and Methods Results
Abstract
References
Meanings of life and death
- Based on the parents' reports, a vast majority of the young people had actually
sought death, although not so much for its own sake, but they believed that death
would offer a way out of what seemed like an endless state of hopelessness.
- One matter to be interpreted is that the young person had experienced some form
of mental upset prior to the act of self-destruction. It had led to a blurring of reality
and a loss of the connection to one’s self and the environment, which was defined,
in particular, as social relationships. It can be considered that in the experience of
the young people, the loss of this connection would have symbolized insecurity,
being the ultimate outsider, and being left alone.
Omens and protective factors
- Omens or the clues that were presented before the child committed suicide and
were only realized later by the parents are associated with several simultaneously
occurring processes, to which the generally associated sub-sectors of life are both
connected to and mixed with each other.
- Protective factors are constructed as the reverse of omens, or as content, from the
perspective of a parent, what should have happened in the youngster’s life, or what
the parent has subsequently considered that someone should have understood or
done otherwise.
Assistance work
- Parents widely criticized the assistance work. The criticism focused on the service
system and operations carried out by the parties for the assistance work.
- The reports of the parents indicate that the mental symptoms of the young people
had been encountered and then primarily treated on the basis of medical expertise,
whereupon potential therapeutic work had remained subordinate to this. In
professional encounters, an exhausted, panicked, or distraught young person may
be lost behind a diagnosis of depression.
- The actions of the young persons had, in parts, contributed to the encounters in the
service system, as well as the directing of assistance. The young persons had often
only been seen in one of the selected sides, whereupon concerns were displayed to
the professional helpers as individual appearences in various different contexts. The
entirety formed by the worries had not been identified and the seriousness of the
situation might have been misunderstood.
Acknowledgements
I thank for my instructors Professor Merja
Laitinen from University of Lapland and
Professor Leo Nyqvist from University of
Turku.
In last decades youth suicide has become major social problem in many Western countries. That is also the case in Finland. Most of the studies
achieved in the field of suicide among young people have focused on the suicide risk and ways in which prevention can be aimed to reduce the
count of young people dying from these risk groups (Maple, 2005). These studies are quantitative strengthening the medical discourse of suicide.
They inevitably ignore the meanings that storytellers attach to events and situations. Previous research also suggests that further research is
needed to broaden our understanding of those bereaved by suicide, especially those most intimately involved in a young person`s death, their
family and parents (Beautrais, 1999; Maple, 2005). This study scrutinizes young people’s suicides from their parents’ viewpoint and provides a
cultural example what and how parents narrate about their child’s suicide.
Conclusion