Social and pedagogical aspects of suicidal behavior – symptoms, determinants, prevention

Abstract

Suicide is a social problem that has been evoking strong emotions for centuries. As a result, more people die in this way every year than in car accidents. Most often, adult men deprive themselves of life, but suicide attempts are relatively often made by people up to 18 years of age. In general, they are not intended to deprive oneself of life. Thus, a young man manifests his rebellion against life’s difficulties or tries to draw attention to his problems. The prevention of suicide attempts should be treated not only as a medical and psychological problem, but also as an important educational task. A special role in suicide prevention should be played by schools, which have the ability to affect a large part of the population of children and adolescents. The article presents issues related to the scale and dynamics of the phenomenon of suicide, its etiology and outlines the basic directions of preventive activity of the school.