Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship among depression, hopelessness and suicidal ideation with high school students. In study 1, to examine the cross-cultural applicability of Beck's theoretical model for suicide, 718 adolescents (375 males and 343 females) were given self-report measures of depression, hopelessness and suicidal ideation and the data were analyzed with LISREL to test the relationship among the above 3 variables. The results showed that correlation between depression and suicidal ideation remained significant even when hopelessness was statistically controlled, while correlation between hopelessness and suicidal ideation was reduced considerably when depression was controlled. In study 2, to test whether self-report scales used in the present study is contaminated with social desirability, and whether depression and hopelessness interact with coping beliefs to have an effect on suicidal ideation, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted. Depression and hopelessness were correlated with suicidal ideation even after social desirability was partialled out, indicating that self-report scales of depression, hopelessness have a construct validity. Depression and hopelessness don't interact with coping beliefs to have an effect on suicidal ideation, suggesting that coping belief is not a cognitive buffer to suicidal ideation in adolescents. Depression-hopelessness-suicide relationship might be qualitatively different between adolescents and adults, which was discussed in terms of therapeutic implication for the treatment and prevention of adolescent suicide.