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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Consciousness Research
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1449688
This article is part of the Research Topic Spirituality and Religion: Implications for Mental Health View all 31 articles

The possibility of reducing the risk of suicidal attempt in adolescents by practicing Confucian philosophy: A phenomenological study in Vietnam

Provisionally accepted
  • Ho Chi Minh City Pedagogical University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Suicide attempt in adolescents is a concern topic that differs greatly between countries because of its cultural specificity. This article reported on the possibility of reducing the risk of suicide attempts in adolescents by practicing Confucian philosophy. In this study, Confucian philosophy is approached as an educational philosophy applied in clinical practice on 12 adolescents who used to attempt suicide. Using a phenomenological study design, we interviewed the selected participants to describe themes surrounding the impact of practicing Confucian philosophy on cognitions, emotions, and behaviors related to suicide attempts. From this framework, we explored the three main findings, which described the journey of reconnecting and repairing family relationships fractured by the negative influence of remnants of Vietnamese Confucianism families. The conservatism and remnants of traditional Confucianism have influenced how Vietnamese parents raise their children, leading to increased risks of suicide as adolescents. The discovered themes greatly contribute to the process of clinical intervention for adolescents who have attempted suicide in countries with similar cultures to Vietnam, or accepted Confucianism as a neutral approach. Above all, the self-nurture and neutral lifestyle were resources that helped the adolescents cope better with their personal problems after participating in this study.

    Keywords: Confucian philosophy, Confucianism, self-nurture, neutrality, suicide attempt, Family relationship

    Received: 15 Jun 2024; Accepted: 13 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Giang, Sam, Van Son and Nguyen-Ngoc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Thien-Vu Giang, Ho Chi Minh City Pedagogical University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.