Barn og unges selvmordsytringer: Kartlegging og analyse av barn og unges selvmordsytringer i samtaler med en nettbasert hjelpelinje

An increasing number of children and young people contact the Red Cross’ online chat service «Kors på halsen», totalk about suicidal thoughts. Through analysis of 200 chat conversations with Kors på halsen from adolescents between11 and 20 years, this study aims to provide knowledge about what particularly characterizes the utterances of adolescentswho explicitly say that they have suicidal ideation. Based on statements and words used in the chat conversations, 59variables were delineated to describe relevant concepts and utterances and further analyzed by the expressed suicidalideation. Of the 200 conversations, 125 (62.5%) adolescents stated clearly that suicidal ideation was the primary reason forcontacting Kors på halsen. Self-harm, depression and anxiety were the most common ailments, while loneliness, bullying,violence and abuse, as well as lack of support were common complaints. Furthermore, many reported poor relationshipswith parents (19.5%), poor well-being at home or at school. When it came to help-seeking behavior, many said that it wasdifficult to explain, or that they did not know what to say when seeking help (30%), and they were afraid that parents wouldbe disappointed (20.5%). Many also said that they wanted help now (17.0%), but that they were reluctant to seek help(18.0%). In total, 14 relevant concepts and utterances were found to be positively associated with suicidal ideation as theprimary reason for contact (p <0.5). Individually, «depression» was the variable with the highest odds (OR = 10.88), followedby self-harm, bullying, previous or recent suicide attempts, not wanting to tell others, feels that things are tough, and wantinghelp now. These insightful results underscore the importance of implementing suicide prevention program in children andadolescents, and the measures should be broad in scope to accommodate the great variety of problems in theireveryday life. ; Et økende antall barn og unge kontakter Røde Kors sitt nettsamtaletilbud «Kors på halsen», for å snakke om ...