Background: Research on suicide in the developed countries has consistently found gender differences in suicidal behaviour. Most notably, males have the higher rate of completed suicide than females. We designed the study to find out the age and gender disparities in various risk factors for attempted suicide among adolescent.

Material and Methods: This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted among the randomly selected 100 adolescents who were attempted suicide. A structured pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demography, family pathology and standard questionnaires to assess mental status. SPSS software was used for the analysis. Chi-square test was used to find out the disparities in age group and gender between various risk factors.

Results: The present study identified that substance abuse (18.2%), mental illness (12.7%), previous history of suicide attempts (14.5%), aggressive nature of suicide attempt (40%), were common in older age group adolescent. Among male suicide attempters substance abuse (22.2%) and aggressive nature of suicide attempt (40.7%), were common than females. There is no statistically significant difference in scores of Becks Suicidal Indent scale, Hopelessness scale, Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale, and Presumptive Stressful Life Events Scale with respect to age and gender of suicide attempters.

Conclusions: Age and gender disparities exist with regard to various risk factors for suicide attempt hence differential way screening and intervention need to be considered for effective preventive service.

Keywords: adolescent, attempted suicide, disparity, risk factors

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Dr Vinayagamoorthy V

Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine,

Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital Puducherry-605001

Mob. 09894135452, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.