79

AT TEMPTED SUICIDE: QUALITATIVE 
STUDY OF ADOLESCENT FEMALES’ LIVED 
EXPERIENCE

Jolanta Latakienė1, Paulius Skruibis

Vilnius University, Lithuania

Abstract. Background. Different aspects of adolescent suicidal behaviour are explored, 
however, they are interpreted in terms suitable mostly for adult suicidal behaviour. 
Knowledge on adolescent suicidality is far from comprehensive. Aims. To describe the 
lived experience of attempted suicide among young females and to unfold distinc-
tiveness of such experience. Method. Three adolescent females aged 13 to 17, who at-
tempted suicide within one year period while not in the state of psychosis, took part in 
the study. Research was conducted using interpretative phenomenological analysis –  
a qualitative research method which aims to explore both experience of a person 
and one’s trying to make sense of it. Data was collected during semi-structured inter-
views which allowed setting a closer contact with respondents. Results. Data analysis 
showed that though a fair amount of attempted suicide experiences of adolescent 
females is similar to those of adults, there are some distinct features: sense of over-
whelming experience and amassing bothers, liveliness of past experiences in the pre-
sent, great lack of support in close relationships, difficulties reflecting and controlling 
emotions and thoughts. Conclusions. These results support the huge importance of 
appropriate responses of the surrounding people and mental health care profession-
als to the state of suicidal adolescent female. Also, it is necessary to teach adolescent 
females to effectively manage their emotions and impulses, and to develop mature 
ego defense mechanisms. Further research could contribute to the creation of guide-
lines to such behaviour or training and a deeper understanding of the psychological 
state of suicidal adolescents. 

Keywords: attempted suicide, adolescent, young females, interpretative phenomenologi-
cal analysis

1 Address for correspondence: Taikos str. 57-88, 05246, Vilnius, Lithuania. Phone: +370 659 
73549. E-mail: latakiene.jolanta@gmail.com.

SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
International Journal of Psychology:  
Biopsychosocial Approach 2015 / 17 
ISSN 1941-7233 (Print), ISSN 2345-024X (Online) 
http://dx.doi.org/10.7220/2345-024X.17.5



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INTRODUC TION 

Berman et al. (2007) data shows that ratio between attempted sui-
cide and completed suicide is largest among adolescents, thus it clearly 
illustrates the significance of paying closer attention to experiences of 
this age group and envisaging its particularity. However, particular rates 
vary substantially from 28:1 to 350:1 depending on the study. These es-
timates are worrying not only because attempted suicide might be one 
of the risk factors of another suicidal attempt but as attempting suicide 
might often itself be a crisis experience for an adolescent. Adequate re-
actions and attention to adolescent’s needs is crucial but hard to man-
age since there is a lack of scientific data on particularities of the state of 
these people.

The problem of suicide is extremely relevant in Lithuania – the rate 
of suicides is among the highest in Europe for almost two decades. This 
is quite common in post-soviet countries where transition from biologi-
cal psychiatry, which lacks psychosocial support, to modern stances is 
not completely fluent. However, attempted suicide among young fe-
males is even more troubling as epidemiological studies have shown that 
since 2006 the number of young females under 19 years old who died 
by suicide is growing (Gerasimaviciute, Gurevicius, 2009). Although the 
rates of female suicides are commonly lower than male, this might be 
explained by the fact that deaths by drowning or overdose are rarely clas-
sified as suicides although these methods of suicide are more common 
among females (Cutcliffe, 2004; Gailiene, 1998). Furthermore, 7 out of  
8 adolescents who had attempted suicide used methods of low lethality 
so they did not require medical attention which makes it hardly possible 
to record precise numbers of attempted suicides (Berman et al., 2007).

Nevertheless, we should not forget that every attempted suicide 
might result in death, irrespective of the method chosen. Besides, re-
search on adolescent suicidal behaviour shows that almost twice as 
many young females have suicidal tendencies compared to young 
males (Zemaitiene, Zaborskis, 2004). Therefore, we can assume that al-
though adolescent females commit suicide more rarely, they experience 
suicidal crisis more often, hence adequate interventions are required. 
Furthermore, young people attempt suicide or engage in self-harming 
frequently – these are signs of great suffering. Though it is not reflected 
in the statistics of committed suicides, it is not less real.



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What is more, there is no consensus among suicidologists upon the 
definition of suicide, attempted suicide, or self-harm – there are a lot of 
different terms, thus misunderstandings arise (Silverman et al., 2007a).  
It is intensely discussed whether suicide, attempted suicide, and self-
harm should be explained by same or different psychological factors. 
On the one side, Van Orden et al. (2005) state the difference between 
so called “periphery” – suicidal ideation or attempts, and “core” – com-
pleted suicide. Authors suggest that research on “periphery” cannot 
compensate the lack of knowledge about the “core”. On the other side, 
Williams (2000) and Baumeister (1990) claim that both suicide and self-
harm can be explained using the same models as most characteristics –  
age, gender, changes in rates during the time – are almost the same. 
What is more, suicide attempt might help a person to reach the aim  
of completed suicide – which is to escape from aversive self-awareness 
at least for a short time (Baumeister, 1990).

Moreover, there were lots of attempts to classify various forms of 
suicidal behaviour (e.g. O’Carrol et al., 2006) but none of them became 
widely accepted. It motivated Silverman et al. (2007a) to create a new 
atheoretical classification. Intent became an integrative construct in this 
nomenclature and should be understood as a conscious wish or desire 
to escape from life. Summing up, in the nomenclature by Silverman et 
al. (2007a), all forms of suicidal behaviour are classified by two criteria –  
suicidal intent (present, unclear, absent) and injury (without injuries, 
non-fatal injuries, death). Attempted suicide is defined as self-inflicted, 
potentially injurious behaviour with a nonfatal outcome and evidence 
(explicit or implicit) of intent to die (Silverman et al., 2007b). We use this 
definition of suicide attempt in this study.

Most studies on adolescent suicidal behaviour tried to name risk fac-
tors. King & Knox (2002) describe such factors of adolescents suicide risk: 
previous suicide attempts, affective disorder, alcohol or other substances 
abuse, aggressive behaviour manner or behaviour disorder, availability 
of means. Research shows that about 90 per cent of adolescents who 
have died by suicide (around the same amount of the ones who at-
tempted suicide) had a mental disorder, the most frequent of which was 
depression (King & Knox, 2002; Ash, 2006). However, methodological  
validity and reliability of such studies are questionable – Hjelmeland  
et al. (2010) state that most of these results are obtained using psy-
chological autopsy: interviewing relatives about mental state of the  



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deceased using DSM criteria. The possibility to accurately evaluate men-
tal health of the relative is doubtful, especially when grieving after the 
loss. In addition, Berman et al. (2007) note that there are no specific 
theories of adolescent suicidal behaviour, however, almost everything 
known about adults’ suicidality fits adolescents as well.

Talking about risk factors, it seems significant that Lithuanian survey 
on 11–15 year olds shows that adolescents name difficulties in family, 
loss, substantial life changes, and financial difficulties as reasons of their 
suicidal intents or plans (Zemaitiene, 2006). Important for the current 
study is the fact that some gender differences were found – females re-
ported suppressed feelings and complicated relationships with peers as 
reasons for suicidal behavior four times more often than males. In ad-
dition, the meta-study of Bilgin et al. (2007) revealed great influence of 
conflict with parents on the suicidal behaviour of adolescent female.

To sum up, Ash (2006) states that most principles of assessment and 
treatment of suicidal adolescents are the same as of adults, but because 
of developmental differences, different life circumstances and legal sta-
tus, viewpoint and behaviour with younger suicidal person should be  
a bit different. Even though suicide attempts and ideation are more com-
mon in adolescence, difficulties arise as adolescents are known to deny 
these thoughts or acts when asked about. This lets us stress the impor-
tance of a strong, trust-based rapport with an adolescent in order to pro-
vide the help he or she needs. King & Knox (2002) add that because of 
adolescents’ reach for autonomy and independence from adults, suicidal 
adolescents give priority to informal support from friends and peers, and 
tend to not seek professional help. In this context, Ash (2006) mentions 
extremely relevant research results – about one third of suicidal adoles-
cents think they should cope with problems themselves and withdraw 
from seeking help, while about one forth think they should keep their 
thoughts about suicide or attempts in secret. Therefore, it seems that 
suicidal adolescent might end up trapped in a vicious circle – he or she 
cannot see opportunities to cope with difficulties himself or herself, 
does not want to turn to adults and rather relies on support from friends, 
yet chances of overcoming suicidal crisis with the help from only peers 
are very limited, therefore, adolescent might feel even more helpless. 
Further, King & Knox (2002) emphasize poor effectiveness of preven-
tion initiatives of adolescent suicidal behaviour. It is exaggerated by the 



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fact that there is a great lack of studies on adolescent suicidal behaviour  
in general – most knowledge about suicide is accumulated on adults.

Yet further, there is plenty of quantitative knowledge about suicide –  
various known risk and protective factors contributed to better under-
standing of suicidal behaviour. However, as Rogers (2001) states, there 
is not much evidence that this information helped to lower total rates 
of suicides, predict suicidal behaviour or understand individual experi-
ences of suicidal person. Shea (2002) also highlights that stressors them-
selves not necessarily explain suicidal behaviour as we should not forget 
that unique personal interpretation determines whether a stressor be-
comes fatal trigger. This idea was proven in the research by Crocker et al. 
(2006) – respondents claimed that most of risk factors mismatched their 
experience. Therefore, applicability of this knowledge to particular case 
or individual therapy is still unclear.

Furthermore, it is important to study this field qualitatively, spe-
cifically, using interview method, because during the survey of Zem-
aitiene & Zaborskis (2004), adolescents of high suicidal risk (attempted  
a planned suicide, often had suicidal thoughts) tended to not disclose 
incentives of their suicidal behaviour (answering it is a secret or nones-
sential thing). Interview provides great opportunity to state a closer rap-
port with respondent which gives a chance to discuss sensitive topics 
and get to know more about personal experiences. Further qualitative 
studies in Lithuania revealed that adults who attempted suicide were not 
keen on expressing their plans to surrounding people as well or tended 
to use non-verbal and indirect communication (Latakienė, 2014). Even 
more, various groups of Lithuanians – penitentiary officers (Dadasev, 
2012), family members, psychiatrists and psychiatry nurses (Latakienė, 
2014) – lack skills or proper reaction towards reports about suicide intent.  
Indifference and disengaging in helping are the most common perceived 
reactions to reports before the attempt which is troubling as unrespon-
siveness and provocation to suicide are considered to be impelling fac-
tors to commit suicide (Latakienė, 2014). However, only adult suicide 
attempters participated in these studies so we need to investigate sepa-
rately whether adolescents’ experience resembles these findings.

Summing up, studies concentrating on adolescent suicidal behav-
ior are scant. Premise that experiences of suicidal adolescents should 
be similar to adults’ lived experience is often made while empirical  



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evidence is still scarce. What is more, theoretical models of adolescents’ 
psychological state propose quite a great difference from adults. Re-
search shows some gender differences as well: females tend to attempt 
suicide more often than males. Researches also tent to orient towards 
quantitative measures searching for common psychological factors of 
suicidal behaviour, often relating them to various mental health esti-
mates. This attitude is problematic as there is a risk to fail to feel adoles-
cents’ individual experience for they tend to be closed and to distrust 
adults because of their age characteristics, therefore, misunderstanding 
might lead to even greater isolation. This study aimed to describe the 
lived experience of attempted suicide among young females and to un-
fold distinctive features of such experience.

ME THOD

Par ticipants and Method

Participants were recruited from a psychiatric hospital; diagnoses 
were not taken into account because of phenomenological grounds  
of the research. Permission from a hospital ethics committee and hos-
pital director were obtained, and written consents were given by par-
ents or caregivers of all participants. Three 13, 15 and 17 years old ado-
lescent females were interviewed. All of them live in the city area, two  
of them attend high school and one vocational school. All respondents 
live in families with only one parent or without them – one of them lives 
in foster home, another with caregivers and her grandmother, and the 
third with mother and stepfather. Time period from attempted suicide to 
interview varied from 9 days to 5 months and 23 days. All respondents 
tried to commit suicide by overdosing medicines or mixture of medi-
cines and alcohol, and it was their first or second suicide attempt.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was chosen for this 
study as this qualitative method, as its author Jonathan A. Smith says, 
is extremely relevant when everyday experiences take on a particular 
significance which usually occurs when something important happens 
(Smith et al., 2009). This method is based on phenomenology, herme-
neutics and ideography. Edmund Husserl’s accented principle of “return 
to things themselves” was adopted from the phenomenological phi-
losophy – IPA practitioners try to not attribute to person’s experiences 



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to pre-determined, abstract categories. Influence of hermeneutics on 
IPA is reflected in a way that it is based primarily on textual analysis and 
interpretation. Moreover, it is an ideographical method as all the atten-
tion is given to a particular case and person’s lived experience instead of 
generalizing about whole population (Smith et al., 2009). Smith (2011) 
admits that sometimes ideographical approach leads the whole study 
to be based on explicit in-depth analysis of one person’s lived experi-
ence, nevertheless, more frequently several cases are analyzed in detail 
searching for common patterns afterwards. However, the best IPA stud-
ies are those which find balance between common structures and de-
scription of individual case, and show how those structures reflect in the 
experience of particular respondent (Smith, 2011).

Table 2. Criteria for Research Validity and Means to Meet Them in Current 
Study

Criterion for validity
(by Yardley, 2000)

Means to meet in current study

Sensitivity to context •	 Reports	of	text	analysis	are	presented	in	research	 
appendices.

•	 Respondents’	quotations	are	given	while	
 examining results.
•	 Researcher	being	of	same	gender	and	of	similar	 

age might help to ensure more acceptable  
environment to respondent.

•	 Researcher	is	able	to	be	emphatic	as	has	more	 
than four years’ experience of volunteering  
in emotional support service „Youth line“.

Commitment and rigour •	 Homogeneity	of	respondent	sample	and	adequacy	
to question researched.

•	 Noticing	respondent’s	cues	and	asking	appropriate	
questions are important to ensure research rigour.  
As researcher’s experience in this field is little,  
questions about conducting interview were  
discussed with supervisor afterwards.

Transparency and coherence •	 Steps	of	respondents	sampling,	interview	course	 
and result analysis are described and grounded  
in detail in research report. 

•	 It	is	sought	to	stick	to	main	IPA	principles,	carefully	
interpret respondents’ words and not make too  
general conclusions.

Impact and importance •	 It	is	sought	to	present	important	and	useful	 
information for the reader in research report.



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Data Analysis

Data were obtained during semi-structured interviews which main 
question was: “I would like you to tell me about your suicide attempt – 
when and where did it happen, what thoughts you have about it now, 
what this experience means to you. I would like to hear everything what 
is important to you.” Interviews were audio recorded. Afterwards, records 
were transcribed and analyzed. In addition to this, all initial thoughts 
about interview were written down in a diary just after the meeting: 
what influence the researcher (experience, appearance, wording of 
questions, etc.) might have had on responses, rapport with respond-
ent was briefly described as well. This was also done before beginning 
another interview after the analysis of previous one. It is important to 
reduce the level of “noise” and bracket preconceived ideas in case to not 
envisage our own previous knowledge before understanding the lived 
experience of the respondent. 

Analysis was accomplished in a few steps:
1.  On the left side of transcript, the phenomenological side and 

exploratory comments were made. There were three types com-
ments: describing, linguistic and conceptual;

2.  On the right – the interpretative – side, emergent themes con-
taining more psychological constructs, reflecting the essence of 
the initial notes were written;

3.  Afterwards, super-ordinate themes were developed by integrat-
ing emergent themes into broader constructs;

4.  After steps 1–3 were repeated for all three transcripts and after 
every transcript was checked for themes which emerged in other 
interviews, master themes reflecting commonalities and differ-
ences between participants were excluded. Master themes and 
some extracts from interviews are presented in a research report.

Validity and Quality

In this research, Smith’s (2011) criteria for IPA based study quality 
and Yardley’s (2010) criteria for qualitative studies validity were used. 
Yardley’s criteria and means to meet them in current study are presented 
in Table 2. In addition to this, so called “independent audit” (Smith, 2011) 
was used to ensure validity of conclusions – part of the interview analy-
sis was checked for plausibility and credibility by two students who had 
used IPA in their research. 



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RESULTS

After analyzing 3 interviews and comparing them, structure of the 
lived experience of attempted suicide among young females emerged. 
Master themes and super-ordinate themes are presented in Table 3.

As it can be seen from Table 3, five master themes emerged. Leaving  
aside such both theoretically and empirically well-known aspects of sui-
cidal state as ambivalent attitude towards life and death (e.g. Schneidman,  
2002), experience of helplessness or thinking deficits (e.g. Baumeister, 
1990; Williams, 2000), in this article we present four super-ordinate 
themes which are specific for adolescent females who attempted sui-
cide: overwhelming experience, liveliness of past in the present, lack 
of support in close relationships, difficulties reflecting and controlling 
emotions and thoughts. 

Table 3. Master Themes

Master themes

 1. Relation towards others: ambivalence of close relationships and help
1.1.  Importance of close relationships
1.2.  Lack of support in close relationships
1.3.  Ambivalent relation towards help
1.4.  Masking of one’s state
 2. Attitude towards one’s life: meaninglessness and hopelessness
2.1.  Meaninglessness and self-abasement
2.2.  Unceasing wish to die
2.3.  Ambivalent relation towards ones death
2.4.  Uncertainty about one‘s future
 3. Impact of experience: abundance and invincibility of experiences
3.1.  Overwhelming experience
3.2.  Oppressiveness of emotional pain
3.3.  Liveliness of past in the present
3.4.  Dissociative thinking
3.5.  Self-harm as a mean to overcome pain
 4. Coping peculiarities: difficulties in self-reflection and self-control
4.1  Spontaneity of attempting suicide
4.2.  Contraction and rigidity of thinking
4.3.  Difficulties in reflecting and controlling emotions and thoughts
4.4  Autonomy of suicidal thoughts
4.5.  Tendency to work out
 5. Look backwards: ambiguous viewpoint towards one’s attempted suicide
5.1.  Ambivalent viewpoint towards suicide
5.2.  Ambivalent viewpoint towards consequences of attempted suicide

 



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Overwhelming Experience
Firstly, all three respondents mentioned that their experience seem-

ed immense; it felt like bothers were accumulating:

Em, things were going wrong in school, first of all, I fell out with teacher, then 
had a fight with classmate, I was somehow in a bad temper when I got home.  
I also fell out with mother, even more, later I and my sister became angr y with 
each other. In a word, I star ted to fall out with ever yone. (Beata, lines 36−39)

Of course, difficulties cannot amass endlessly so Agne also men-
tioned outburst, when it seems that strains and pain overpass the limits 
of coping abilities:

S o ever ything piled up in a heap this way. Well, it did not stood – neither my 
ner ves, nothing. (Agne, lines 131−132)

It looks like one of the consequences of such state might be dimin-
ished activity which Cecile told about:

I don’t k now, but recently I don’t want to do anything, I dislike now what I used 
to like. (Cecile, lines 8−9)

Thus, it seems that girls felt overtaken by greater difficulties than 
they had resources to cope them with. When this discrepancy became 
too oppressive, two further ways emerged – to do nothing or try ex-
treme measures – attempt a suicide. 

Liveliness of Past in the Present
Narrations of two respondents revealed that feelings uprising in 

the situation of attempting suicide were experienced as if they would 
happen “here and now”. It is well illustrated by Cecile’s change of gram-
matical tense – girl talks about actions of hospital staff or herself in past 
tense, but when she starts talking about her oppressive thoughts and 
wish to isolate – she uses present tense:

S o they used to tell me: “ W hen those thoughts arise to you, come and tell”. I lied 
in bed, turned to the wall and told nobody that those thoughts are already trou-
bling me, but somehow they saw that I sepa rate myself alone, I don’t wa nt to 
talk , and then again at a dash, they injec ted those medicines. (Cecile, lines 85–89)

In Beata’s telling, liveliness of past state in present is seen from her 
frequent use of word “here” when she talks about past events:



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Well, attempted suicide is not for the first time here … Af ter wards, I somehow 
calmed down, such thoughts didn’t even come to me. But later, just recently here, 
on 4 th of November, from 3 rd of November to 4 th of November, it all happened at 
night here, ever ything gone wrong with me for the whole Thursday. (Beata, lines 
17–21)

It seems that such way of talking might testify traumatizing nature 
of the lived experience of attempted suicide – such “here and now” pro-
ceeding of experiences is typical of persons with posttraumatic stress 
and might be interpreted as an expression of invasion symptoms which 
were widely described by Herman (2006).

Lack of Suppor t in Close Relationships
What is more, all three respondents experienced loss of important 

relationships – Agne finished a long-time relationship with boyfriend just 
before attempting suicide and she has been living in foster home since 
she was 6 years old, Beata lives with sister as her mother had gone abroad 
a year earlier, Cecile’s mother is dead, her father is drinking. Girls talked 
about current tense relationships with close people as well. Girls had  
different reactions to these relationship difficulties, but experience of 
lack of attention, warmth and support was common:

M y, for example, father, who I love a lot, he drinks now, well, he is not a ver y 
serious alcoholic, he just works during a work week and drinks on weekends. A nd  
I lack such greater warmth from him, of course, I get a lot of attention still, he 
loves us, but… (Cecile, lines 342–345)

Sometimes this pain of loneliness manifested with anger, even as  
a wish to revenge on the person who had left by committing suicide.  
As Beata says:

I was lef t to live with sister, so, something like pain that mother is not nearby, 
at the same time anger. A s we spoke with psychologist, I revenge on her with all 
that mine behaviour. (Beata, lines 110–112)

Moreover, girls talked about the acuteness of this ache of being left 
and expressed it using vivid metaphors as may be seen in Agne’s words:

Well, I am like that – all or nothing. That is how it was, any way, so many years, 
such a long time spent together, well any way, it tugged at my hear tstrings and 
that ’s all, that ’s all. (Agne, lines 50–52)



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These experiences might be associated with Joiner’s (2009) de-
scribed feeling of failed belonging. Besides, it is worth recalling specifics 
of child’s reaction to parents’ loss – as Polukordiene (2008) says, when 
parents die before adolescence of their children, a lot of unprovided 
care remains and afterwards children experience this feeling long and 
painfully. Although parents’ death is usually mentioned as an example, 
but discontinued relationship caused by parents’ drinking or life in foster 
home should be also considered as a loss. Even more, Flouri & Buchnan’s 
(2002) study showed that responsibility, engagement and accessibility 
of parents is one of prominent protective factors against adolescent sui-
cidal behaviour. It can be concluded that suicidal risk of girls who partici-
pated in this study might had been greater because of particular familiar 
circumstances.

Difficulties Reflecting and Controlling Emotions  
and Thoughts
In addition to all been said, significant features of respondents’ state 

were difficulties in understanding and controlling their thoughts and 
emotions. Analysing reports of two of the girls – Beata and Cecile – it is 
especially clear that they could hardly reflect on the origin, process and 
changes of their emotions:

I was at odds with my grandmother because I cried a lot out of nowhere that 
day. I just sat by the table, ate and star ted cr ying, I even don’t k now why, I just 
star ted cr ying so painfully, tear fully. (Cecile, lines 315–316)

Even more, it seems that girls lack emotion management abilities. 
Beata’s words illustrate that very clearly – frequent use of word “some-
how” and repeated mention of consultations with psychologists made 
an impression that she is not confident about her feelings or insights 
about her state:

 Well now somehow we talked with psychologist about my emotions, that  
I need to manage anger somehow … somehow I don’t even think about such 
things anymore. (Beata, lines 25–27)

These results resemble Berman et al. (2007) descriptive researches 
showing that stress-provoking events often overpower adolescents’ 
coping skills and resources. In addition to that, authors emphasize that 
teaching emotion regulation, especially anger management strategies, 



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should be one of the main tasks in helping adolescents who attempted 
suicide (Berman et al., 2007). It is worth adding that girls felt lack of infor-
mation from the hospital staff. Cecile says:

 A nd I told psychologists over and over again, but they did not say anything, at 
least to me, what was happening, they k new something, and I thought somehow 
that if I tell something to psychologist or psychiatrist, he must tell me what he un-
derstood from my speech, well, what he decided about me, whether I have some 
illness or not. (Cecile, lines 206–212)

It can be assumed that such model of treatment where patient is 
passive and uninformed does not help to develop self-reflection and 
control abilities.

It is also worth noticing that all three girls repeated quite a lot that 
they cannot recall part of experience. As all of them attempted suicide 
by overdosing, it might be attributed to the influence of drugs, however, 
it seems that displacement could also manifest:

I: Maybe somehow you could tell more, well, some things, about what stimu-
lated and impeded your attempted suicide? B: … I tried to not think anything, and 
it is ver y hard for me to talk , because I do not remember clearly what I thought 
and said since as I am af ter coma, I have something with memor y … S o I remem-
ber just some major fac ts and nothing more. (Beata, lines 59–66)

Apter & Gothelf (1997) study on ego defense mechanisms used by 
suicidal adolescents revealed that these youngsters tend to displace 
much more often and very rarely seek compensation for their experi-
ences compared to non-suicidal adolescents. Therefore, it seems that 
girls who attempted suicide neither felt capable of managing their expe-
riences nor had approval from outside that surrounding people would 
help them to survive suicidal crisis.

DISCUSSION

Study on adolescent females’ lived experience of attempted suicide 
provided some insights about this phenomenon. Most characteristics  
of such adolescents’ psychological state – ambivalent attitude towards 
life and death, experience of helplessness, thinking deficits – are simi-
lar to features of psychological state of a person in suicidal crisis de-
scribed by other researchers of suicidal behaviour (Schneidman, 2002; 



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Baumeister, 1990; Williams, 2000). However, it is important to notice that 
girls of adolescent age who attempted suicide specifically emphasized 
the importance of close relationship, their painful reaction to difficul-
ties or losses of it, and inability to find an effective way to control vari-
ous aspects of their state: intense and oppressive feelings, imperative 
and obsessive thoughts, spontaneous actions. It seems that importance  
of failed belonging, stressed by Joiner (2009), manifest prominently in 
the case of adolescent females’ attempted suicide.

These results interrelate with Berman et al. (2007) proposition that 
it is especially important to have interpersonal relations which would 
provide support and help in dealing with problems for adolescents who 
engage in suicidal behaviour. Besides, as it emerged in study, girls do not 
have enough internal resources to manage their strong emotional expe-
riences, thus, the importance of effective cognitive strategies and exter-
nal resources of support is even greater. Nevertheless, it is problematic 
as respondents also reported that instead of support from close people 
or adequate information from mental health professionals about their 
mental state, they got reproach, reticence or even threats from institu-
tions in case inappropriate behaviour recurs. Such a way of reacting is 
not appropriate, because it might strengthen helplessness experienced 
by girls which only increases suicidal risk. Withdrawal from surrounding 
people who blamed girls and intensified suicidal ideation testify it. 

Another substantial aspect is poor self-control skills of suicidal ado-
lescent females, high impulsivity levels of suicidal behaviour, tendency to 
self-harm seeking to escape from pain and oppressive emotions. These 
results confirm that adolescents’ teaching is of great importance – Ber-
man et al. (2007) suggested teaching emotion, especially anger, man-
agement skills. Also, psychodynamically oriented researchers (Apter & 
Gothelf, 1997) stress the importance of defense mechanisms; they sug-
gest to encourage to use sublimation or compensation instead of denial, 
displacement or acting out which are commonly used by suicidal ado-
lescents. These two directions – educating emotion management skills 
and nurturing maturity of defense mechanisms – are worth attention and 
might be useful in counseling adolescent females who attempted suicide.

Limitations of this study firstly emerge from characteristics of re-
spondents. As only adolescent females participated, it remains unclear 
whether gender differences exist, therefore, generalization for all adoles-



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A Biopsychosocial Approach

cents is limited. However, as Smith et al. (2009) state, a single IPA based 
study does not seek to empirically generalize results about whole popu-
lation, but the aim is to explore particular experience in certain context 
in detail – it should be called theoretical generalization.

It might be also noticed that different length of time passed since 
attempted suicide to interview could be also important. Though theo-
retically, ability to keep distance from one’s experience and reflect on it 
might have been different, but there were no significant differences in 
themes important to the girls. The fact that two interviews were taken 
on the last day of respondents’ stay in hospital is another limitation of 
the study. Unwillingness to remember and wish to keep distance might 
be more connected to home-sickness, wish to return to ordinary flow of 
life rather than to painfulness of experiences. It is worth having in mind 
this aspect when choosing time for the interview in further research.

The field of attempted suicide among adolescents should be re-
searched in future. Firstly, it might be worth interviewing adolescent 
males. As Smith et al. (2009) state, detailed study on a few small popula-
tions, which sampling is based on earlier research, allows to eventually 
form a wider understanding of phenomenon. Also, it is important to an-
alyse more in detail which reactions of surrounding people and mental 
health professionals disturb and which help to cope with experiences 
both before and after the suicide attempt. Similar study that went deep 
into guilt experiences of adults who attempted suicide and stayed in 
psychiatric hospital was conducted in Sweden by Wiklander et al. (2003). 
This would give a chance to set particular guidelines for treating suicidal 
adolescent adequately. 

To conclude, though a lot of attempted suicide experiences of ad-
olescent females are similar to those of adults, there are some distinct 
features: a) adolescent females feel their experience is overwhelming 
and accumulating; b) past experiences are relived as if they would be 
“here and now”; c) close relationships are extremely important for girls, 
but they often feel cast-off and not heard by adults, and their experi-
ences being devalued; d) difficulties with self-reflection and self-control 
manifest in search of coping with experiences. Moreover, supportive and 
empathic reactions of surrounding people and informative reactions  
of mental health professionals towards adolescent females who at-
tempted suicide are important.



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BANDYMAS NUSIŽUDYTI: PAAUGLIŲ MERGINŲ 
IŠGY VENIMŲ KOKYBINIS T YRIMAS

Jolanta Latakienė, Paulius Skruibis
Vilniau universitetas, Lietuva

Santrauka. Problema. Įvairūs paauglių savižudiško elgesio aspektai nagrinėjami plačiai, 
tačiau jie dažniausiai interpretuojami suaugusiesiems tinkamais terminais. Paauglių 
suicidiškumo specifika dar nėra pakankamai ištirta. Tyrimo tikslai. Tyrimu siekiama 
aprašyti merginų išgyvenimus, susijusius su bandymu nusižudyti, ir atskleisti šio 
patyrimo ypatumus. Metodai. Tyrime dalyvavo trys 13–17 metų merginos, per 
pastaruosius vienerius metus bandžiusios nusižudyti ne psichozės epizodo metu. 
Tyrime taikytas vienas iš kokybinių tyrimų metodų – interpretacinė fenomenologinė 
analizė, kurios tikslas yra tyrinėti asmeninę žmogaus patirtį ir tai, kaip jis bando su tuo 
susidoroti. Duomenys rinkti pusiau struktūruotų interviu metu, todėl buvo galimybė 
užmegzti artimesnį kontaktą su respondentėmis. Rezultatai. Duomenų analizė 
atskleidė, kad nors nemaža dalis bandžiusių nusižudyti paauglių merginų išgyvenimų 
panašūs į suaugusiųjų, yra keletas svarbių skirtumų: patyrimo neaprėpiamumo 
ir sunkumų kaupimosi išgyvenimas, praeities įvykių gyvumas dabartyje, stiprus 
artimųjų palaikymo trūkumas, sunkumai reflektuojant ir kontroliuojant emocijas bei 
mintis. Išvados. Šio tyrimo rezultatai rodo didžiulę deramo aplinkinių ir psichikos 
sveikatos specialistų rea-gavimo į savižudiškai besielgiančios paauglės būseną svarbą. 
Taip pat išryškėja būtinybė mokyti pačias paaugles efektyviai tvarkytis su emocijomis, 
impulsais ir taikyti brandesnius ego gynybos mechanizmus. Tolesni tyrimai galėtų 
padėti kurti tokias elgesio ar mokymų gaires ir giliau suprasti savižudiškai besielgiančių 
paauglių psichologinę būseną.

Pagrindiniai žodžiai: bandymas nusižudyti, paauglystė, jaunos merginos, interpretacinė 
fenomenologinė analizė.

Received: February 12, 2015
Accepted: October 19, 2015