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A comparison between American and Chinese college students on suicide-related behavior parameters

Lew B 1 , Osman A 2 , Huen JMY 3 , Siau CS 4 , Talib MA 5 , Cunxian J 6 Show all authors , Chan CMH 7 , Leung ANM 8

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Human Ecology, Putra University of Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Psychology, University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas, United States
  • 3 Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
  • 4 Faculty of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 5 Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Putra University of Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 6 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shandong University & Shandong University Center for Suicide Prevention Research, Jinan, Shandong, China
  • 7 Centre for Community Health Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi Selangor, Malaysia
  • 8 Department of Psychology andCentre for Psychosocial Health, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Int J Clin Health Psychol, 2020;20(2):108-117.
PMID: 32550850 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2020.03.005

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: The United States (US) and China are the two largest economies, but recent and directly comparable studies on suicide-related behaviors in the two countries are lacking. By using the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), item-level comparison was performed in assessing self-reported suicide-related behaviors between the US and Chinese undergraduates.

METHOD: This study involved a total of 3,185 college students aged between 18 to 24 years (1,185 US college students, and 2,000 Chinese students who were randomly selected from a large sample of 11,806 Chinese college students). Participants filled out the 4-item SBQ-R.

RESULTS: Participants' responses were compared by country and sex. There was a higher overall risk of suicide-related behaviors among US students (24.3%) compared to Chinese students (17.0%). US students also reported higher lifetime attempt, past-year ideation, and lifetime threat. US female college students reported the highest suicide-related behaviors compared to other sub-groups.

CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to tailor specific interventions to alleviate college students' suicide-related behaviors in the US and China, with a particular focus on US females.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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