Causes and Effects of Suicides Committed by Pupils in South African Schools

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this article was to navigate and investigate the causes, manifestations, and ramifications of suicides committed by students in South African Schools; more especially in so far as how these impact the wellness of school communities (parents, teachers, non-teaching staff, and students themselves) in schools affected.Design/Methodology/Approach -The methodology that was used in the study is the Qualitative Research Methodology. Data collection and analysis were done through Literature Review by examining print media reports, journal articles, and data from published works of other researchers around the world. The approach adopted was the interpretive approach. The aim in using this approach was to explore and understand what the causative factors of suicides committed by pupils in schools are, in the world in general and in South Africa in particular. It was also to further establish what the ramifications of the suicides are in the emotional wellness of pupils and school communities affected. Ultimately, the purpose was also to come up with strategies that could be employed to circumvent the occurrence and adverse effects of suicides committed by students in schools, first on students themselves, and secondly, on school communities in general.Interpretation is the most challenging part of qualitative research (Bakhshi, Weisi, and Yousofi 2019). Data must be interpreted on the basis of data collected to produce theories. Most of the questions that the researcher in this study needed to answer to interpret data were the 'why', the 'how', and the 'what' questions. Answers to these questions had to be tested for their trustworthiness through triangulation. Triangulation is described as an approach where the researcher uses either multiple methods, several theories, or different data sources -in time and space (Jentoft and Olsen 2019). By using triangulation, researchers have an opportunity to gain a better and broader understanding of the phenomena under investigation. The use of different methods and sources of data collection helps to support a finding by showing that independent measures agree with it, or at least, do not contradict it. This is the strategy that the researcher used in this study to interpret data. Finally, to ensure the trustworthiness of the interpretations, the researcher in this study compared the results and ideas as they came up from sources of available literature, media reports, Journal Articles, and published works of other researchers on the topic at hand to come up with recommendations. Findings -The finding from this study is that the prevalence and gravity of suicides committed by students and the effects thereof, on the wellness of students in schools in South Africa, are