Suicide Risk at Young Adulthood: Continuities and Discontinuities From Adolescence

Young adult suicide is an important social problem, yet little is known about how risk for young adult suicide develops from earlier life stages. In this study the authors report on 759 young adults who were potential high school dropouts as youth. At both adolescence and young adulthood, measures of suicide risk status and related suicide risk factors are collected. With a two-by-two classification on the basis of suicide risk status at both adolescence and young adulthood, the authors distinguish four mutually exclusive groups reflecting suicide risk at two life stages. Using ANOVA and logistic regression, both adolescent and young adult suicide risk factors are identified, with evidence of similarity between risk factors at adolescence and at young adulthood, for both individual-level and social-context factors. There is also support for both continuity and discontinuity of adolescent suicide risk. Implications for social policy are discussed.