Citation

Bockhoff K, Bruder S, Ellermeier W, Rohrbach T, Hertel US. Z. Entwicklungspsychol. Padagog. Psychol. 2022; 54(2): 80-92.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Verlag fur Psychologie, Publisher Hogrefe Publishing)

DOI

10.1026/0049-8637/a000252

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

To improve suicide prevention in schools, we implemented workshops for students in grades 8 - 10. The students (N=200) were randomly assigned to either a training or a control group and were surveyed regarding their help-seeking and help-giving behavior and their depressive symptoms both before and after the training as well as 3 months later. The results indicate that especially those students assessed to be at a higher risk for suicide benefitted most from the training. Their number of depressive symptoms decreased significantly and remained stable. Participants undergoing the training tended to be more likely to ask a teacher for help and to initiate more crisis counseling interactions with peers in need than did untrained controls; these differences, however, were not statistically significant. Though hampered by high dropout rates because of the Covid-19 pandemic and a restrictive prescreening process, these results indicate the positive effects of an extracurricular suicide prevention program on students' well-being and behavior. © 2022 The Author(s).

Language: de

Keywords

suicide prevention; depression; students; school prevention programs; psychoeducational training