A multi-method psychological autopsy study on youth suicides in the Netherlands in 2017: Feasibility, main outcomes, and recommendations

Abstract

In the Netherlands, there was a sharp increase in the number of suicides among 10-to 19year-olds in 2017. A multi-method psychological autopsy study (PA) was conducted to assess feasibility, identify related factors, and study the interplay of these factors to inform suicide prevention strategies. Methods Coroners identified youth suicides in 2017 in their records and then general practitioners (GPs) contacted the parents of these youths. Over a period of 7 months, 66 qualitative interviews were held with the parents, peers, and teachers, providing information on precipitating factors and five topics involving 35 cases (17 boys and 18 girls, mean age 17 years). Furthermore, 43 parents and care professionals filled in questionnaires to examine risk and care-related factors. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed. Results Although registration problems faced by coroners and resistance to contacting bereaved families by GPs hampered the recruitment, most parents highly appreciated being interviewed. Several adverse childhood experiences played a role at an individual level, such as (cyber) bullying, parental divorce, sexual abuse, as well as complex mental disorders, and previous suicide attempts. Two specific patterns stood out: (1) girls characterized by insecurity and a perfectionist attitude, who developed psychopathology and dropped out of school,

Gender differences in suicide-related communication of young suicide victims

“…Proxy informants of youths aged under 20 who lived in the Netherlands and died by suicide in 2017 were interviewed in a psychological autopsy study in 2019 [ 30 ]. Parents were the principal informants.…”

“…Secondary informants were recruited through the parents. The sampling strategy is further detailed by Mérelle and colleagues [ 30 ]. Interviews lasted approximately 2–3 hours and were conducted by an interviewer and a researcher (EB, ML).…”

Comparison of Suicide Attempts and Suicide Deaths by Jumping from a High Place in Korean Children and Adolescents

“…Psychological autopsy studies have been a valuable means of elucidating the characteristics of suicide. However, most studies on children and adolescents have used the general population [ 15 ] or accident victims [ 7 ] as their control group or examined suicide victims alone without controls [ 16 ]. These studies’ designs do not demonstrate the characteristics of suicide deaths that differentiate them from suicide attempts.…”

Additional Value of Peer Informants in Psychological Autopsy Studies of Youth Suicides

“…This study is part of a multimethod, psychological autopsy study of adolescent suicides conducted in the Netherlands ( Mérelle et al, 2020 ). The Dutch Ministry of Health requested the research team to conduct a study into all 81 youth suicides (i.e., of youth below the age of 20) in 2017, as the number of youth suicides had peaked in this year.…”

“…Directly after each interview, each interviewer independently wrote a reflective report of one to two pages of each interview, zooming in on key events and important factors in the life and events related to the suicide of young people. All detailed information about the method for this psychological autopsy study is described by Mérelle et al (2020) .…”