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Abstract
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In a sample of Egyptian university students, measures of love of life, self esteem and positive and negative affect predicted suicidality. The scales performed better for Egyptian women than for Egyptian men, and better for past suicidal ideation than for past suicide attempts. It was proposed that counselors should monitor their clients' mental state each session using scales with a positive outlook on life (such as love of life) than scales with a negative outlook on life (such as depression).
A great deal of research has been conducted to explore whether standardized psychological scale can predict suicidal ideation and behavior. Most of the research is conducted in Western countries. The present study explored whether psychological scales can predict suicidal ideation and behavior in an Arab sample and whether there were sex differences in the prediction. The following constructs were used.
Love of life (LOL) is a positive evaluation of one's own life, and involves holding on strongly to life, grasping at life, having a pleasurable attachment to life, and having an appreciation for life (Abdel-Khalek, 2007). Significant positive associations have been reported between LOL scores and happiness, life satisfaction, mental health physical health, self-esteem, optimism, hope, emotional intelligence, general self-efficacy, social support and religiosity, in addition to negative associations between LOL and neuroticism, anxiety, depression, suicide ideation, pessimism, somatic symptoms, and hopelessness (e.g., Abdel-Khalek, 2007; Abdel- Khalek & Lester, 2012).
Self-esteem stands out as an important topic in psychology since its introduction by William James (1890/1983). Many studies have identified self-esteem as an important determinant of, and highly correlated with emotional well-being, mental health, happiness, and optimism (Abdel-Khalek, 2007; Baumeister et al., 2003).
Positive affect and negative affect are two broad, general factors that have emerged reliably as the dominant dimensions of emotional experience, and the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) is one of the measures in this domain (Watson & Clark, 1994).
The present study was designed to explore whether scores on these scales could predict suicidal ideation and behavior in male and female university students.
Language: en |