Research Memo #3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSVXZruqppM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOBVpUDrT7c&feature=related

    I picked this song (the first link) because I feel it shows that there is always someone there for you and no matter what you are never alone. There's always someone in the world that is there to help when you need it. Even if it only that one person, you have them and one person to be there for you through everything is all you really need. You should not end your life because you feel alone or unworthy because the truth is that no matter what that's not true. I picked this clip from the movie Cyber bully (the second link) because it shows what some teenagers go through. This girl like any other teen, then people started to call her names and make fun of her. Her friends stopped talking to her and so did everyone else so she felt the need to give up on everything; life. Luckily, she was stopped and her friend and mom kept her from killing herself, but for many nobody notices the pain they're going through until it is too late.

Research Memo #2

    In the article "Girl's Death Puts Bullying in the Spotlight" is about a girl named Phoebe that gets bullied at her new school and kills herself. She was only 15. A girl named Kayla and her friends picked on Phoebe continuously because she dated guys that they liked. She said "sorry" and backed off, but they proceeded to harass her. They threw things at her and called her names, even threatened her. One day on the way home from school the girls threw things at Pheobe and she went home that day and killed herself. After, the girls mocked her death. None of this was necessary, but it happened anyway to and innocent and very young girl. The nine kids who picked on Phoebe were charged criminally. Stephen Bank, a clinical psychologist says that the most likely reason for Phoebe's harassment was jealousy.

    In the article "Teen Girls Make Suicide Pact" two teen girls make a suicide pact and their parents discuss the affects it is having in them. Dr. Marc Siegel discusses how it is hard for parents to discuss bullying. He says that to some extend children must handle their own problems. Furthermore he says that the main causes of suicide are alcohol, drugs, depression, and loneliness. These articles help to answer my question because they tell different reasons that kids commit suicide and that it is never for only one reason.

Research Memo #1

Hypothesis:

My research is about teen suicide and what the main cause of it is. Teens commit suicide for many different reasons, but which social environment is the most influential and will most likely lead to suicide? I think that respondents will say that what is happening at school is the main reason because teens are harassed at school all the time. I think teens will say that the environment in their life that influences them the most is school because school controls your home life and your "outside of the house" life.

 

Context:

    Kids are often bullied at school or through technology at home by kids from school. Last year there was a time period, between August and December, when you could not look at a magazine without seeing the face of a teen that had committed suicide on the cover. I looked on a people magazine one day and saw the faces of three teen, 13, 16, and 17, who had killed themselves recently; it was very sad. Then, when my uncle killed himself I stared to wonder what situation would most likely lead to a teen committing suicide. I'm giving my survey to kids that are thirteen to eighteen years old to receive their opinion on what environment affects them the most.

 

Results:

	Males	Females
Do you think that teen suicide is a big problem in the community?	Yes	Yes
What would you say is the main cause of teen suicide?	Bullying, problems at home, and drags/alcohol	Bullying, problems at home, and drugs/alcohol
What would you say is the most influential environment in your life?	Home	Out with friends
In your opinion, why do teens commit suicide?	They feel no one loves them/ depressed	They feel worthless or unhappy/ to solve their problems
Do you know anyone (that is a teen) personally that has committed suicide?	No	Yes
What percentage of teens do you think commit suicide?	5-15	20-75
At what age do you think most teens commit suicide?	14/16/17	15-17
Have you seen any magazines or newspaper articles about teen suicide in the past five years?	Yes	Yes
If so what did they say? What did they make you feel?	Someone killed themselves/sad	Someone killed themselves/bad or sad
If a teen commits suicide do you think that the blame can be placed on the parents?	Sometimes	Sometimes

 

Data Analysis: The results were what I thought they were going to be. Males and females agreed on most of the questions except whether or not they knew anyone that committed suicide. Females said yes and males said no. it surprised me that males did not know people that committed suicide.

Conclusion: Most of the results were as I expected. Females and males agreed on almost everything.

Follow Up: In my next memo I will see what environments influences more teens to commit suicide.

Preliminary links

1. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=10&sid=a06d2ab9-678a-418c-a569-08f785d026d3%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=nfh&AN=2W61321887405
Teen commits suicide because of bullying and the bullies plagued people to be bullied.

2. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=10&hid=10&sid=a06d2ab9-678a-418c-a569-08f785d026d3%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=nfh&AN=32U3105074993FX2
Two teen girls write up suicide notes and kill themselves and doctors discuss the emotional effect on the family and on other teens that have been bullied and did not commit suicide.

3. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=10&hid=10&sid=a06d2ab9-678a-418c-a569-08f785d026d3%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ulh&AN=J0E244145092110
Teens discuss and have activities to break the barrier between cliques so that the bullying rates will reduce and with them the teen suicide rates.

4. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=11&hid=125&sid=a06d2ab9-678a-418c-a569-08f785d026d3%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=nfh&AN=2W63124693831
Prosecuter discusses that more kids are bullying through the internet and how this effects parents and that parents need to be informed of cyber bullying.

Delving into Teen Suicide

    I want to know what social environment influences a teen more and what the main cause of teen suicide might be. To Answer this question I've come up with some other questions that will help me.

1. Should parents always be blamed for their children committing suicide?
   
2. Which environment causes teens to act in a different way than they normally would?
   
3. Why do most teens decide that killing themselves is the only way to escape something bad in their lives?
   
4. How can we use this information to inform teens of the rates of teen suicide and possibly prevent the rates from raising still?
   
5. What if teens no longer felt that they needed to commit suicide and the rates of ten suicide started going down?
   

These questions can help me delve deeper into the causes of teen suicide and find out what the main cause may be. Maybe one day teens will be educated enough and not feel the need to commit suicide and they will find other ways to solve bad situations in their lives.

 

 

 

 

Story Behind My Topic

    Teen suicide rates are rising. Many teens are bullied in school, mistreated at home, and some go left alone and completely unnoticed everywhere they go. My uncle committed suicide this August; he was eighteen. He had been having some problems at home and his dad kicked him out. His car broke down and his girlfriend left him. No longer having a way to school, which is all he wanted to do, he asked to move back in with his dad for the duration of the school year. Instead of talking it out or giving him other options, his step mom declined and started to fight with him. That is when he gave up; he took the rope from his dad's house and went down to the lake. Brandon was more influenced by his home life, but some teens do not have a good school environment. Teens commit suicide because of bad social situations, but which social environment is most influential on a teen?