RISK FACTORS OF SUICIDE AMONG UNIVERSITY OF BENIN STUDENTS, EDO STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Suicide is a complex behavioural phenomenon that involves taking one’s life by oneself. It is fundamentally a general social and public health problem worldwide (Izadinia, Amiri, Jahromi & Hamidi, 2010) and also a problem that is both very serious and preventable (Amare, Woldeyhannes, Haile, & Yebeabat, 2018). The social, economic and psychological effects of suicide are unbearable in most societies of the world. Families, organisations and the general society are often thrown into mourning when there is an incidence of suicide. Such depressive mood often impact productivity, create fear and anxiety, reduce value for human existence and cause social unrest; among others. Suicide account for 1.5% of cause of death and the onset of suicide ideation increases during adolescence in almost every country (Nock, Borges, Bromet, Cha, Kessler & Lee, 2008, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007). Suicide is the most worrisome psychological problem that significantly increases or leads to death among undergraduates in Nigerian Universities. This might create a lot of public health concern in our universities, organizations, educational, public and private sectors. Suicide ideation is seen as a major psychological killer of humans. It was observed that humans do not easily admit to commit suicide, while some people tend to die by suicidal acts. It was commonly observed that only those who are diagnosed of anxiety, stress, depression and personality problems are liable to commit suicide. Hence, about 50% of human(s) who die of suicide acts are not clinically sampled individual(s) or having personality and stress disorder which might result to significant increase in risk of committing suicide among undergraduates of institutions of higher learning, youths, adolescents and young adults. Suicide ideation constitutes one aspect of suicidal behaviour and refers to the human thoughts that life is meaningless of living, as well as current plans and thereby engages in wishes and thoughts to commit suicide (Pienaar, Rothman, & van der Vijver, 2007). Connor and Nock (2014) opined that the causes of suicidal behaviour are not clearly understood and many researchers have identified various risk factors which do not, most of the time, account for why individuals decide to end their lives. Suicide ideation, planning, attempts and gestures are all suicidal behaviours (Esfahani, Yasaman & Alavi, 2015). Ducher and Daléry (2004) posit that two major risk factors for suicide attempts are suicide thoughts and ideation since most individuals who have attempted suicide have expressed such thoughts during the months before.