UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING STUDENT SUICIDE

1. UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING STUDENT SUICIDE David Lester The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

2. Prologue • Provocation: • Why bother? • But you’re not serious!

3. Why Bother? • My college’s philosophy • Opened in 1971 under Richard Bjork • Students are adults • They live in the community • They should use community facilities • No counseling center • (No NCAA teams)

4. Why are universities in loco parentis • Parents rarely get blamed • Are landlords held liable? • Are companies held liable? • Civil liability • Public relations • Yale student commits suicide off campus • Depressed? Get out!

5. Foxconn suicides in China • Apple and other firms • Some investigation • Conditions improved • Apple and others moved production elsewhere • January 2012: abusive sweatshops • Online petitions

6. France Télécom • 24 suicides at least • Some away from work • Some from the building • One executive responsible for trying modernize the company resigned in October 2009

7. Why aren’t you doing more? • School suicide prevention programs • Increasing awareness curricula • Skills-based program to teach social skills, problem-solving strategies • Gatekeeper training • Staff • Teachers • Peer gatekeepers and crisis counselors • Screening

8. Let me ask just two questions of you • Do you screen all incoming students at your institution for psychiatric problems and suicidal risk? • Do you train all faculty to be gatekeepers? • (Don’t laugh)

9. Suicide in the United States • Many efforts • Government funding • Research • NGOs • American Association of Suicidology • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention • And many more organizations • But the suicide rate here is low

10. Year male female • Japan 2007 35.8 13.7 • Finland 2007 28.9 9.0 • Belgium 1999 27.2 9.5 • France 2006 25.5 9.0 • Austria 2007 23.8 7.4 • Switzerland 2006 23.5 11.7 • New Zealand 2005 18.9 6.3 • Sweden 2006 18.1 8.3 • Germany 2006 17.9 6.0 • USA 2005 17.7 4.5 • Denmark 2006 17.5 6.4 • Ireland 2007 17.4 3.8 • Canada 2004 17.3 5.4 • Norway 2006 16.8 6.0 • Australia 2004 16.7 4.4 • Netherlands 2007 11.6 5.0 • United Kingdom 2007 10.1 2.8 • Italy 2006 9.9 2.8

11. male female • Belarus 2003 63.3 10.3 • Lithuania 2007 53.9 9.8 • Russia 2006 53.9 9.5 • Hungary 2005 42,3 11,2 • Estonia 2005 35.5 7.3 • Latvia 2007 34.1 7.7 • USA 2005 17.7 4.5 • From www.who.int

12. Steven Stack • % deaths from suicide for those 18-24 • Students 16.7% • Non-students 14.4% • Suicide rate • Big Ten 7.1 • Three samples 6.5, 7.0, 9.4 • Berkeley (1950s) 12.4 • Americans aged 15-24 in 2009 10.1

13. Understanding Suicide in College Students • A great deal of research on suicidal ideation and attempted suicide in college students • The goal is to learn about suicide in general • Not about suicide in college students • For example, a study by Lamis and Malone (2011)

14. Langhinrichsen-Rohling, et al. (2011) • Personality & Psychopathology • Depression • Affect dysregulation • Anger/hostility • Hopelessness • Alcohol abuse • Delinquency/conduct • Risky behavior/impulsivity

15. Gender & Sexuality • Body image/eating disorder • Sexual orientation • Cross-gender role

16. Social Disruption • Childhood psychology/physical abuse • Sexual abuse • Dating violence • Physical assault victim • Bullying • Family instability/loss/divorce/violence • Thwarted belongingness • Perceived burdensomeness

17. Stress & Life • Achievement/school problems • Interpersonal problems • Health problems • Prior suicidal behavior

18. Coping strategies • Social support seeking • Problem solving coping • Emotionally expressive coping • Using humor to cope • College-Specific Problems • Procrastination • Perfectionism • Optimism

19. The College Environment • Greater academic demands • Being on one’s own in a new environment with new responsibilities • Changes in family relationships and one’s social life • Financial responsibilities • Exposure to new people, ideas and temptations • Being away from home, often for the first time • Making decisions on a higher level than one is used to • Substance abuse • Awareness of one’s sexual identity and orientation • Preparing for life after graduation

20. Two-year community colleges • Local colleges • Colleges distant from home • Colleges in a foreign country • Online colleges

21. Living at home • Living in a dormitory on campus • Living in an apartment on campus • Living in an apartment in town • Living in a fraternity/sorority

22. Single • Married • With children • Divorced/separated • Veteran • Disabled

23. Stressors • Holmes and Rahe stress scale • College stress scales • Academic • Housing • Financial • Social isolation • Homesickness • Career indecision • Peer pressures toward risky behaviors

24. Stressful universities • Stanford University • Columbia University • MIT • University of Pennsylvania • Harvard University • Based on cost, competitiveness, acceptance rate, engineering rank, crime on campus

25. Other sources of stress • Violence on campus • Sexual assaults • Hate crimes • Hazing • Avengers (students, faculty and staff) • Riots • Arson and bombing

26. Graduate students • Lifetime serious suicidal ideation • Undergraduates 18% • Graduate students 15% • Past year suicide attempt • Undergraduates 0.85% • Graduate students 0.30% • Precipitating factor: school problems • 43% and 45%, respectively • Protective factor: wanting to finish school • 39% and 32%, respectively

27. Stressors for graduate students • Family (spouse and children & divorce) • Dependency on one professor (thesis advisor) • Sexual abuse • Working on professor’s research (often no credit) • Professor moves elsewhere (or denied tenure) • Rewards for criticizing fellow students’ papers • Poor job prospects in many fields • Elitism (rejecting jobs at low prestige colleges)

28. Other risk factors • Perfectionism, especially at high status universities and for some groups of students • Language problems for foreign students

29. Acculturation • Racism and sexism • Conflicts between achieving in America and staying “true”to one’s culture • Found in Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian American students • One must not seek to be better than one’s peers • For women, the pressure to get married and have children rather than a career • For African Americans, accusations of becoming too “white,” especially for African American women

30. Protective factors • One can live at home • On campus, one has friends, , resident advisors, faculty, mental health services • Less crime (although still some crime) • Fewer lethal means for suicide

31. Should suicidal students be forced to leave? • Bernard and Bernard studied students who had threatened or attempted suicide • Cause • Academic pressures 7% • Romantic pressures 52% • Family problems 21% • Stay in college? • 80% did so and felt that this was the correct decision

32. Potentially Good Programs • Screening • Emory University • University of California San Diego Medical School • Gatekeeper-training • Syracuse University • Cornell University • Web-sites for information • Cornell University