Psychological Variables as Determinants of Suicide Behaviour among Adolescents in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated some psychological variables as determinants of suicide behaviour among adolescents in Rivers State, Nigeria. It adopted the correlational research design. The population of the study was the entire 785 students of the three federal government colleges in Rivers State who exhibited suicide behaviour. Using purposive sampling, these students who exhibited suicide behaviour were drawn and used for the study. Three research questions and three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significant. Two instrument namely suicide behaviour questionnaire (SBQ-R) by Osman et al and determinants of suicide behaviour (DSBQ) were used for the study. The SBQ-R was adapted and used to find out those that exhibited suicide behaviour while the DSBQ was a Likert type scale that contained two sections (A & B). Section A contains instruction on how to respond to the questionnaire while section B contains 2 sub sections that contain items on depression and self-esteem which were the independent variables. Experts in measurement and evaluation validated the instrument while the reliability index for suicide behaviour was 0.85, 0.72 for depression and 0.82 for self-esteem using Cronbach via SPSS. Simple regression was used to answer research question 1 and 2 and the corresponding hypotheses while multiple regression was used to answer research question 3 and the corresponding hypothesis at 0.005 alpha level. Findings were that depression (p=0.003<0.005), self-esteem (p=0.000<0.005) and joint psychological variables (p=0.000<0.005) relates significantly to suicide behaviour. Based on the findings it was recommended that professional counsellors should counsell adolescents on depression and self-esteem.