Individual Characteristics predisposing undergraduate students to Suicide Ideation in the University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47941/japsy.1155Keywords:
Suicide ideation, Suicide, Undergraduate students, Individual CharacteristicsAbstract
Purpose: The purpose of the study was to find out the individual characteristics predisposing undergraduate students to suicide ideation in the University of Cape Coast.
Methodology: A mixed methods approach was used in which a quasi-experimental research design, specifically, the pre-test, post-test and control group design was combined with a qualitative phase. A total of 30 undergraduate students from four colleges of the University of Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana were non- randomly assigned to two treatment groups Individual Psychology and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (IP and CBT) and one control group. Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation was used for the collection of data for the study. To assess the individual characteristics that predispose undergraduate students of UCC, Chi square test for association was employed as an appropriate tool for the analysis.
Findings: The study revealed that age, gender, program of study and level of study of the students have significant association with students who are predisposed to suicide ideation.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: It was recommended that constant screening of suicide ideation be done as part of the University's program to be organised by the Counselling Center. This is to help educate and create more awareness on suicide ideation and bring in more people per the screening to benefit from counselling therapies which in turn will help reduce suicide ideation on our campus.
Downloads
References
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) (2019). Annual Report. https://annual2019.afsp.org/.
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). (2014). Preventing suicide. http://www.afsp.org/preventing suicide on May, 2020.
Arria, A. M., O'Grady, K., Caldeira, K. M., & Vincent, K. B. (2009). Suicide ideation among college students: A multivariate analysis. Arch. Suicide Res., 13, 230-246.
Barron, K. (1999). Ethics in qualitative social research on marginalized groups. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 1(1), 38-49.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC). (2012). Injury center: Violence prevention. National suicide statistics at a glance. http://www.cdc.gov/violence prevention/suicide/statistics.
Clinciu, A. I. (2013). Adaptation and stress for the first-year university students. Procedia - Soc. Behav. Sci., 78, 718-722.
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). Sage.
Dachew, B. A., Bisetegn, T. A., & Gebremariam, R. B. (2015). Prevalence of mental distress and associated factors among undergraduate students of University of Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional institutional based study. PLoS ONE, 10(3), 33-37.
Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. (2015). How to design and evaluate research in education (9th ed.). McGraw- Hill.
Goldkuhl, G. (2012). Pragmatism vs. interpretivism in qualitative information systems. European Journal of Information Systems, 21(2), 135-146.
Goles, T., & Hirschheim, R. (2000). The paradigm is dead, the paradigm, long live the paradigm: The legacy of Burrell and Morgan. Omega, 28(3), 249-268.
Goodman, E., Huang, B., Wade, T. J., & Kahn, R. S. A. (2003). Multilevel analysis of the relation of socioeconomic status to adolescent depressive symptoms: Does school context matter? J. Pediatr. 143, 451-456.
Johnson, R. B. B., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Mixed methods research: A research paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher, 33(7),14-26.
Lamis, D. A., Malone, P. S., Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., & Ellis, T. E. (2010). Body investment, depression, and alcohol use as risk factors for suicide proneness in college students. The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 31(3), 118-127.
Morgan, D. L. (2014). Pragmatism as a paradigm for social research. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(8), 1045-1053.
Nam, B., Hilimire, M. R., Jahn, D., Lehmann, M., & Devylder, J. E. (2018). Predictors of suicidal ideation among college students: A prospective cohort study. Social Work in Mental Health, 10, 1 -15.
Schwartz, A. J. (2006). College student suicide in the United States: 1990-1991 through 2003-2004. Journal of American College Health, 54, 341-352.
Sreeramareddy, C. T., Shanker, P. R., Binu, V. S., Mukhopadhyay, C., Ray, B., & Menezes, R. G. (2007). Psychological morbidity, sources of stress and coping strategies among undergraduate medical students of Nepal. BMC Med. Educ. 7(1), 26. DOI: 10.1186/1472-6920-7-26.
Van Orden, K. A., Witte, T. K., Braithwaite, S. R., Selby, E. A., & Joiner, T. E., Jr. (2010). The interpersonal theory of suicide. Psychological Review, 117(2), 575-600.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Benedicta Ama Adom-Mensah
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
