Experimental and Pragmatic Approaches to the Incidence of Adolescent Suicide

Issues involved in the contrasting, & at times, conflicting approaches taken by experimental & pragmatic researchers to adolescent suicide are reviewed & then illustrated in a case study in which both methods were used to evaluate a school-based suicide education program for 11th graders. The experimental paradigm seeks to draw general conclusions from varying contexts while the pragmatic paradigm would use the same data for the development & implementation of programs in particular schools.