The suicide rate of adolescents in Korea is increasing annually. Therefore, this research was done to identify the suicide attempt rate of middle and high school students and to identify factors that influence suicidal attempts.

The Korea Youth Health Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2007) was used as data. Discriminant analysis and logistic regression were performed to analyze the data depending on gender to consider the gender difference in assessing the influence of each independent variable on suicidal attempts.

Discriminant analysis according on gender showed that 13 factors correlated with suicidal attempts for boys, and 20 factors for girls. The most highly correlated factors were smoking, depression and inhalation experience. For inhalation experience, boys had 2.7 times higher possibility of suicide attempts (95% CI 1.8-3.0) and girls, a 2.4 times higher possibility (95% CI 1.7-3.5).

The results of the study indicate a need to classify adolescents for expectation of suicide risk and high danger for suicidal attempts through, and introduce suicide prevention programs for these adolescents. In particular, it is necessary to start intervention with students who smoke, have sexual and inhalation experiences and high levels of depression.