Objective:

Compare the risk of suicide, by gender, among adolescent, secondary-school students who are residents of urban and rural areas in the Coquimbo region of Chile.

Materials and method:

This is a non-experimental, descriptive quantitative study of a non-probabilistic sample. In November 2016, Okaska's Suicidality Scale to gauge the tendency towards suicide was applied anonymously to a sample of 349 adolescents ages 14-19 (48.7% males and 51.3% females) who were attending urban and rural educational establishments in the Coquimbo region of Chile. A two-way ANOVA was used for the locality and gender variables.

Results:

There are no differences in the risk of suicide according to geographic location. However, by gender; 15.76% of the female adolescents were found to be at suicidal risk.

Conclusions:

Suicide is a global public health problem that has not been addressed adequately in terms of prevention and health promotion. There are varieties of factors that influence the risk of suicide. The female-gender factor presents a greater risk, while the geographical location of residence appears to pose risk.

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