Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 9, 2025

Integrating Computerized Linguistic and Social Network Analyses to Capture Addiction Recovery Capital in an Online Community
Published on: May 31, 2019
Reasons Why Suicidal Adolescents Want to Live: A Corpus-Driven Language Analysis
Ana M Ugueto1,2, Lauren A O'Hagan3, Mathijs F G Lucassen4
1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston.
Suicidal adolescents often cite family, friends, and future aspirations as their reasons for living. Understanding these motivations can help reduce suicidality and personalize mental health treatments.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Psychology
- Public Health
Background:
- Adolescent suicidality is a critical public health issue.
- Suicidal youths experience a conflict between wanting to live and die.
- Understanding reasons for living is crucial for intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine suicidal adolescents' self-reported reasons for living.
- To gain a nuanced understanding of their individual perspectives.
- To inform therapeutic interventions for adolescent suicidality.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative analysis of reasons for living from 211 hospitalized adolescents.
- Corpus-driven language analysis to identify word patterns.
- Analysis of common words, nouns, adjectives, and verbs.
Main Results:
- 97% of participants identified three reasons for living.
- Key themes included relationships (family, friends), future, and personal aspirations.
- Analysis revealed the importance of belonging, purpose, relationships, hobbies, ambitions, and responsibilities.
Conclusions:
- Reasons for living offer protective factors against suicidality.
- These reasons can be therapeutically utilized to build rapport and personalize treatment.
- Identifying what matters to adolescents is key to effective mental health care.
More Related Videos
06:42Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses
Published on: September 28, 2018
07:56Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
Related Concept Videos
Language and Cognition
Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...
Cognitive Development During Adolescence
Language Development
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
Components of Language
Revisionist Views of Adolescent and Adult Cognition