Suicide Among Latino Adolescents Essay

Suicide is the act of killing yourself, most often as a result of depression or a mental illness. Latino adolescents are at an elevated risk of suicide compared to other ethnic groups, due to depression or bullying. Bullying is an intentional aggressive behavior, typically very common in adolescents. Normally the bully uses superior strength to intimidate or dominate a person from a different ethnic background or a smaller, weaker person. Bullying can cause a victim to feel upset, afraid, ashamed, embarrassed, depressed, and anxious. In result, causing the victim to become so overwhelmed from the constant bullying that he/she may attempt to commit suicide. Latino Adolescents are at an elevated risk of committing suicide due to the fact that there are different races who bully Latinos. For example, in today's society we see all types of people from different ethnic backgrounds who target Latinos for not speaking English, being illegal in the United States, their social class, or

There are many school professionals, such as a guidance counselor’s who can help prevent suicide among Latino adolescents. They can help adolescents by developing greater awareness of the problems that might place them at risk. Such as this study done by Yovanska M, Duarte´-Ve´lez and Guillermo Bernal, “Foreign-born Hispanics (mostly Mexican Americans) were found to be at a lower risk of suicide than their U.S.-born counterparts. Even those 15- to 34-year-olds who were Suicide Behavior among Latino and Latina Adolescents 443 born and remained in Mexico were at lower risk of suicide than those who moved to the United States, suggesting that acculturation plays an important role in suicide behavior”(Duarté-Vélez, Y. M., & Bernal, G., 2007). This study shows that there are ways to help Latino adolescents with suicide and depression by seeing which foreign Hispanics are more prone to committing