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Abstract
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In a sample of South African college students, both depression and reasons for living scores predicted lifetime suicidal behavior (ideation, threats and attempts).
Much of the research into suicidal behavior has focused on the risk factors for suicide, factors such as substance abuse and psychiatric disorder (Dvorak, Lamis & Malone, 2013). More recently, research has looked at protective factors (Wang, Lightsey, & Tran, 2013), but some protective factors, such as scores on a measure of hope (Davidson, Wingate, Rasmussen, & Slish, 2009), seem to be simply the reverse of risk factors such as score of a measure of hopelessness (Neufeld & O'Rourke, 2009). One exception to this is the inventory devised by Linehan, Goodstein, Nielsen and Chiles (1983) which measures reasons for living. The Reasons for Living Scale has 48 items, answered on a 6-point Likert-scale, ranging from (1) extremely unimportant to (6) extremely important, which comprise six subscales: survival and coping beliefs, responsibility to family, child concerns, fear of suicide, fear of social disapproval, and moral objections.
The present study examined the role of reasons for living and depression in predicting a history of suicidal; behavior in a sample of South African undergraduate students.
Language: en |