Research Memo #1

Hypothesis:

According to the World Health Organization, “Someone around the globe dies every 40 seconds by committing suicide.” When you are a teenager, this is the point where you are finding out who you really are and along that road come struggles. Some of these struggles are relationships, academic pressure, or problems with friends and family. But what about the teens who suffer mentally? My hypothesis is depression has the greatest impact on teen suicide because teens who suffer from depression are twice as likely to commit suicide than teens who do not suffer from depression.

Context:

I conducted research on what cause has the greatest impact on teen suicide. Problems in school, family, friendships, or relationships cause teens to feel overwhelmed. I believe the cause that has the greatest impact on teen suicide is depression. Depression is a mental illness that causes teens or anyone who suffers from it to feel overly sad. For my target audience, I chose teenagers age 14-19 because it can give me some insight on how they feel and help me prove my hypothesis.

Results:

Trends	Responses	Errors
When asked what causes teens to commit suicide, depression was always marked.	Depression causes many teens to attempt or commit suicide.	I did not include an introduction on my survey so I had to explain my research question to everyone who took my survey.
In the agree/disagree statement, Teens commit suicide because they believe it will solve their problems, All but one person chose agree.	About 98% of the people who took the survey agreed that teens commit suicide to solve their problems.
100% of people who took the survey said that teens who are suicidal could be helped.	This shows that people believe that teens can be helped and they still have hope that they will get better.
Everyone who took the survey said that it is true that the suicide rate is increasing.	People are aware that more and more teens commit suicide each year.
95% of the people who took my survey said that it is hard to tell if someone is depressed or suicidal.	This shows that most people do not know what signs to look for to tell if someone is depressed or suicidal.

Data Analysis:

Teens that have depression are more likely to commit suicide than teens who do not have depression.

· Depression is a mental illness that causes anyone who suffers from it to be overly sad. It affects the lives of millions of teens each day and it is said to be the leading cause of teen suicide.

· Teens who suffer from depression are more likely to commit suicide than teens who do not suffer from depression makes teens feel sadder than average teenagers do. For example, an average teenager who gets bad grades in school improves their working skills while a teen who suffers from depression often feels like their a failure.

Teen suicide is among the third leading causes of death

· In the last 45 years, the suicide rate has increased by 60% worldwide. It is among the three leading causes of death in those aged 15-4 years and the second leading death in those aged 10-24 years.

· Biological, cultural, social, psychotically, and environmental factors all play a part in why people commit suicide.

Conclusion:

My hypothesis was that depression has the greatest impact on teen suicide because teens who suffer from depression are twice as likely to commit suicide than teens who do not suffer from depression. I believe that I was correct because mental illnesses cause a person to feel and act differently from the average person. Depression makes a teen feel overly sad and sometimes worthless enough to take their own life. I believe that we can help teen that are suicidal by reaching out to them and getting them help.

Follow up:

There are many causes for teenage suicide and for my Research Memo #2, I will further examine how depression affects the lives of teenagers and how it affects families. My essential research question that will be examined next will how teen suicide affects families. Based on the research that I have collected so far, I have not changed my research questions