Suicide, the act of intentionally killing oneself, has become an increasingly more common and serious issue among teens who tend to experience problems psychologically dealing with hardships in their life. Too often, do I see in the daily news suicides that have resulted from a complicated reason that was outside of the teen's control, such as divorce, family alcoholism, domestic violence or even sexual abuse. For all of these reasons, suicide has become the ninth leading cause of death in the United States, with 31,204 suicides in 1995. Most teenagers pass through their adolescence with a few bruises and scars but no lifetime problems. But, a few find darkness in life, resulting to their decision of suicide.
             In this paper I will be searching for the psychological concept of adolescent suicide among different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I am trying to find similarities between cultural influences and individuals who commit suicide, then come up with a final reason why teens commit suicide. I will talk about numerous reasons that cause suicidal behavior like: health problems, feelings of loneliness, abuse either mentally or physically, emotional problems and drug/alcohol abuse. The rate of teen suicide has risen significantly over the past decades and I will attempt to link certain cultural differences to that. Some people think it is coincidence but I believe there are certain societal influences behind suicide.
             In one of the articles dealing with a longitudinal study of 9,679 Norwegian adolescents, I found that only 2.7% reported an attempt of suicide. This percentage is drastically low when comparing it to other countries. Even though there is less suicides in Norway, there are common bonds between the causes and reasons that lead to their suicide attempts. The leading cause for suicides among Norwegian youth is alcohol use, living in a single parent home, and low self est
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