TEENS WHO COMMIT suicide may be influenced by their own depression, dysfunction in the home, interpersonal problems, the media, drug or alcohol abuse, and other factors that affect them as individuals. Sometimes, they are also influenced by other teens. The phenomena of suicide pacts and cluster suicides should not be overlooked in the discussion of teen suicide. Although elements of the two phenomena often overlap, defining the two separately is helpful. Suicide pacts are promises made between friends who agree to commit suicide together. Suicide clusters are rashes of suicides by teens in the same school or community in a relatively short period of time.

Making a promise to die

Sometimes suicidal teens discover peers who have similar feelings of helplessness. Rather than finding solace in knowing there are others who share these feelings, however, some teens make and deliberately carry out pacts with...