Background: Youth suicides have diverse characteristics according to the young people's developmental stages. Warning signs and communication of suicidal intent can be vague among early adolescents, while mental health problems may be more evidently related to suicidal ideation in older adolescents. Understanding the developmental characteristics of youth suicide is necessary for effective suicide prevention. Aims: We explored the differences between children and adolescents who died by suicide and the characteristics of these young people as observed by their school teachers. Method: We analyzed teachers' mandatory postmortem reports of suicides among 308 Korean students. We compared: suicide-related information including personal, familial, and school factors; stressful life events; and participation in interventions among elementary, middle, and high school students who died by suicide. We also assessed the distribution of student suicides per month. Results: Suicide among elementary school students increased during school vacations, and suicide among middle and high school students increased during the school semester. According to the teachers' reports, elementary school students who died by suicide were more extroverted and had better academic achievements than their high school peers, and had significantly lower levels of substance/tobacco use. Elementary school students who died by suicide showed significantly less academic stress and use of external professional help than did other groups. Limitations: Because this research is based on mandatory teacher reports, the subjective opinions of teachers may have affected the reliability of the data. Suicide by out-of-school youth was not included. Conclusion: School-based suicide prevention should be implemented in accordance with young people's developmental characteristics.

中文翻译：

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各个教育阶段的韩国青年自杀。

背景：青年自杀根据年轻人的发展阶段而具有不同的特征。在早期青少年中，警告信号和自杀意图的传达可能含糊不清，而年龄较大的青少年中，心理健康问题可能与自杀意念更为明显。要有效地预防自杀，必须了解青年自杀的发展特征。目的：我们探讨了因自杀死亡的儿童和青少年之间的差异，以及他们的学校教师所观察到的年轻人的特征。方法：我们分析了308名韩国学生中老师关于自杀的强制性验尸报告。我们比较了：与自杀有关的信息，包括个人，家庭和学校因素；生活压力大；并参与基本的干预措施，自杀身亡的中学生和高中生。我们还评估了每月学生自杀的分布。结果：在学校放假期间，小学生自杀率上升，而在学期中，高中生自杀率上升。根据教师的报告，死于自杀的小学生比高中生更外向，并具有更好的学业成绩，并且物质/烟草使用水平显着降低。死于自杀的小学生与其他团体相比，学习压力和使用外部专业帮助的人要少得多。局限性：由于此研究基于强制性教师报告，因此教师的主观意见可能会影响数据的可靠性。不包括失学青年的自杀。结论：应根据年轻人的发展特点实施校本自杀预防。