Unveiling Adolescent Suicide Cases in Indonesia through the Lens of Maslow's Needs Theory

Abstract

Objective This study aims to identify factors that influence suicidal thoughts and behaviour based on whether adolescents' needs are met according to Maslow's needs theory. Methods Data was obtained from the Google web news search engine by entering keywords related to suicide, known as web scraping. The data was processed descriptively. Results Most of the characteristics of suicide victims are male adolescence, aged about 17–25 years, and their current type of work is as a student. Based on Maslow's needs theory, the reason for most victims committing suicide is unfulfilled "love and belonging needs" (41.4 percent), of which romantic problems are the most current case (37.2 percent). Conclusions Suicide attempts by adolescents are essentially rooted in unmet needs. When their problems remain unsolved and there is nothing that can be done, they take a shortcut to escape from the problem by choosing suicide.