The purpose of this study was to grasp the social representations about suicide amongst adolescents in high school context, as well as, to measure suicidal ideation levels among them, considering that suicide ideation brings a strong predictive role in suicide risk evaluation. Ninety high school students took part in the study. The inclusion criteria in the sample were: high school students aged between 14 and 22 years old. As instruments, the Free-Word Association Test, the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSI) and a sociodemographic questionnaire were used. A level of 22.2% of suicidal ideation sample and significant differences in social representations of suicidal behaviors were observed among adolescents with and without suicidal ideation. Adolescents with suicidal ideation self represented themselves as lonely, linking suicide ideations to hopelessness and loneliness, while requesting help for their suffering. Findings lay emphasis on factors that may allow a better understanding of the problem of suicide.
Suicidal ideation; Adolescence; Social representation; High school
