The Los Angeles Times (5/21, MacVean) reports in its “Science Now” blog that “in a study published Monday the Canadian Medical Assn. Journal, researchers surveyed thousands of teenagers about the effects of suicide by someone they knew or attended school with.” According to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Canadian universities of Ottawa and Alberta, “Adolescents may be particularly susceptible to” the idea that suicide is “contagious.” The researchers found that “broadly, suicide death of a schoolmate was a stronger predictor of suicide outcomes than a suicide by someone who is personally known, perhaps because the death of a peer resonates with youth more than the death of a close adult.”
Related Links:
— “After a suicide, classmates often think about it too, study says, “Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2013.