excluding those who had dropped out of school and/or had a poor attendance record at the time of the survey, and we also omitted those who did not answer three primary questions (i.e., the onset of alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking and sexual intercourse) from the analysis, even though this excluded group might be characterized by disproportionately greater participation in problem and suicide-related behaviors.12 Thus, because of these biases, our conclusions may be understated. Third, because certain variables were not addressed in the KYRBWS data, this study could not consider several forms of psychopathology that have been directly or indirectly associated with suicidal behaviors, including adverse childhood experiences, aggressiveness, eating disorders, clinical symptoms, and social support and capital.2-4 Finally, the KYRBWS included information on onsets of the problem behaviors but did not include information on onsets of the outcomes. Consequently, we were unable to draw inferences about the causal pathways between problem behaviors and suicide-related behaviors among Korean adolescents. Therefore, future research should consider adopting a longitudinal design to examine the relationships among our focal issues with greater precision.
