Editorial

Abstract

The American study by Jones, Bilge-Johnson, Rabinovitch and Fishel investigated the role played by self-esteem in the relationship between reported victimization and suicidal ideation among adolescents. This is considered to be the first study to explore such a relationship in a hospital population. A total of 65 youngsters were suffering from depression, whereas the other two were suffering from an anxiety disorder and all had a history of non-suicidal self-harm or of attempted suicide. A number of significant correlations between victimization and other related variables such as suicidal ideation, depression, negative mood, anhedonia and negative self-esteem were reported. A regression analysis indicated that only low self-esteem predicted suicidal ideation. It is to be noted that adolescents with a history of non-suicidal self-harm had a lower level of self-esteem and a higher level of suicidal ideation. Previous studies had already linked victimization with low self-esteem, whereas other studies linked non-suicidal self-harm with eventual suicidal behaviour. The contribution of this study lies in the fact that it creates links between the different studies. The authors acknowledge that the cross-sectional nature of the study is a limitation and precludes the reader from understanding the dynamics of the interactions between one variable and another. The study highlights the importance of helping adolescents in this client group to bolster their self-esteem besides helping them to counteract victimization.