METHOD: This is a multi-site cross-sectional study. The authors conducted a survey based on a translated self-administered questionnaire to participants from seven core hospital departments.
RESULTS: While most health-care workers regardless of department and specialty took their duty to prevent suicide seriously, a large majority of them expressed negative attitudes such as finding suicidal behavior irritating, and more than half believed suicidal attempts were a way of making others sorry. However, psychiatric workers were less likely to have judgmental attitudes that included believing suicide attempters as being selfish or trying to get sympathy from others.
CONCLUSIONS: As there were more similarities than differences in health-care workers' attitudes toward suicide, recommendations on basic and continuous suicide prevention and management training among hospital workers were made. The interventions focused on improving knowledge, affective, and skill-based areas that were aimed to correct the wrongful understanding of and to minimize the negative attitudes toward suicidal individuals indicated by the study results.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the risk and protective factors contributing to suicidality among undergraduate college students in seven provinces in China.
METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 13,387 college students from seven universities in Ningxia, Shandong, Shanghai, Jilin, Qinghai, Shaanxi, and Xinjiang. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires.
RESULTS: Higher scores in the psychological strain, depression, anxiety, stress, and psychache (psychological risk factors for suicidality) and lower scores in self-esteem and purpose in life (psychological protective factors against suicidality) were associated with increased suicidality among undergraduate students in China. Demographic factors which were associated with higher risks of suicidality were female gender, younger age, bad academic results, were an only child, non-participation in school associations, and had an urban household registration. Perceived good health was protective against suicidality.
CONCLUSIONS: Knowing the common risk and protective factors for suicidality among Chinese undergraduate students is useful in developing interventions targeted at this population and to guide public health policies on suicide in China.
METHODS: Participants comprised 1912 college students (16-28 years old, 47.2% female) from three universities in Jilin Province, China, who completed the self-report assessments of psychological strains (40 items Psychological Strains Scale) and suicidal behaviors (Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised). The demographic characteristics included four variables: health status, psychological status, academic status and economic status.
RESULTS: Approximately 15.0% (286/1912) of participants were classified as having suicide risk, based on the cut-off scores of the SBQ-R. The prevalence of suicidal behaviors among males and females was 11.9% (120/1009) and 18.4% (166/903), respectively. Value strain (OR = 1.075, 95%CI: 1.057-1.094), aspiration strain (OR = 1.082, 95%CI: 1.064-1.101), deprivation strain (OR = 1.073, 95%CI: 1.052-1.093), and coping strain (OR = 1.095, 95%CI: 1.075-1.116) were risk factors for suicidality in college students. Coping strain (OR = 1.050, 95%CI: 1.023-1.077) was still positively associated with suicide risk in multivariate logistic regression. Logistic regression analysis indicated that coping strain had the highest correlation with suicidal behaviors.
LIMITATIONS: The directionality of the relationships cannot be deduced because this study is cross-sectional.
CONCLUSION: This study confirms a strong association between psychological strains and suicidal behaviors in college students. Some measures can be taken to reduce psychological strains to mitigate suicide risk among college students. More studies investigating coping strain among college students are warranted.
METHODS: In the current study, 2074 students (706 males), filled out the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, with subscales of Search for Meaning (MLQ-S) and Presence of Meaning (MLQ-P); the Future Disposition Inventory-24 (FDI-24), with subscales of Positive Focus (PF), Suicide Orientation (SO), and Negative Focus (NF); and the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS). These scales measure protective and risk factors that are linked to suicidal behaviors; while suicidal behaviors were measured by the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R). Mediation analyses were performed to test the models with both the MLQ-S and MLQ-P as the mediators between a) hopelessness, as measured by BHS and suicidal behaviors; and b) PF, SO, and NF, as measured by FDI-24, and suicidal behaviors.
RESULTS: We found that only MLQ-P mediated the relation between hopelessness and suicidal behaviors; while both MLQ-P and MLQ-S mediated PF, SO, and NF (as measured by FDI-24), and suicidal behaviors, respectively.
CONCLUSION: Meaning in life, including both the presence of meaning in life and search for meaning, can be good protective factors against suicidal behaviors.
METHODS: The Question, Persuade, Refer program materials were translated and adapted for implementation in the hospital setting for nonpsychiatric health professionals. There were 159 (mean age = 35.75 years; SD = 12.26) participants in this study. Most participants were female (84.9%), staff/community nurses (52.2%), who worked in the general medical department (30.2%) and had no experience managing suicidal patients (64.2%). Intervention participants (n = 53) completed a survey questionnaire at pretraining, immediately after training, and after three months. Control participants (n = 106) were not exposed to the training program and completed the same questionnaire at baseline and three months later.
RESULTS: Significant improvement occurred among intervention participants in terms of perceived knowledge, self-efficacy, and understanding of/willingness to help suicidal patients immediately after training and when compared with the control participants 3 months later. Improvements in declarative knowledge were not maintained at the 3-month follow-up.
DISCUSSION: This study confirmed the short-term effectiveness of the gatekeeper training program. Gatekeeper suicide training is recommended for implementation for nonpsychiatric health professionals nationwide.