Family References Dominate Suicide Notes, Korean Study Reveals (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — References to family—especially to mothers and fathers—appear more often than any other words in the final notes left by people who died by suicide, according to a new study that offers insight into emotional and social patterns surrounding such deaths in South Korea.
The Korea Foundation for Suicide Prevention analyzed more than 38,000 suicide notes written between 2013 and 2020, working with a neuroscience team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Their findings were published in a report titled A Study on the Characteristics of Murder–Suicide Through Will Analysis.
Using natural language processing, researchers examined 215 notes from those who committed murder–suicide and 37,735 notes from other suicide cases. Among the 7,015 nouns identified in the former group, “mother” appeared most frequently (3.5 percent), followed by “father” (2.1 percent). Similar results appeared in the general suicide group, where “mother” (3.8 percent) and “father” (3.0 percent) again topped the list, ahead of words like “person,” “son,” and “family.”
In the end, the thought that came to mind during their hardest moment was of their family. (Yonhap)
One key difference was financial stress: in murder–suicide cases, “money” was the third most common noun, appearing more often than in other suicides.
The emotional tone also varied sharply. The study found that notes linked to murder–suicide often contained expressions of “anger” and “agitation,” while other suicide notes more frequently conveyed “care,” “love,” and “sadness.”
Among murder–suicide cases, parents in their 30s and 40s who killed their children most often cited economic hardship or health problems. When elderly individuals took the lives of their parents, the primary reasons involved caregiving burdens and financial strain.
The researchers called for stronger social safety nets to prevent such tragedies, recommending expanded economic support, greater access to psychological counseling, and mediation services for family conflicts.
If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, you can contact South Korea’s Suicide Prevention Hotline at 109 or seek 24-hour counseling via the MadleLan messaging service.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
