Collegiate Attitudes toward Suicide: New Zealand and United States

Abstract

Attitudes toward suicide, as assessed by the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ), were evaluated in samples of New Zealand ( N = 236) and United States ( N = 248) college students. Substantial differences were found, with New Zealand students attitudinally perceiving to a greater degree a relationship between suicide and mental illness, perceiving suicide as less serious, agreeing with the right to take one's life, and seeing suicide in a more religious context and as a less impulsive, less “normal,” and more moral action.

Suicide Proneness in American and Japanese College Students: Associations with Suicide Acceptability and Emotional Expressivity

“…In the current study, the internal consistency in the U.S. sample was good (a ¼ .82), but slightly less than acceptable (a ¼ .63) in the Japanese sample. The SOQ (Domino et al, 1988) acceptability subscale is comprised of 7 items that measure how much individuals view suicide as a natural means of escaping from stressful and=or difficult life situations. Items are measured on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).…”

“…Compared to Asian cultures, Americans are more likely to perceive suicide ''as a violation of social trust, as an act to evade social responsibility, and as an act against one's duty to God'' (Young, 2002, p. 417). Correspondingly, using Domino's Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ; Domino, MacGregor, & Hannah, 1988), McAuliffe and colleagues (McAuliffe, Corcoran, Keeley, & Perry, 2003) demonstrated that suicide ideators from western cultures have a distinct attitudinal profile as compared to nonideators. Suicide ideators view suicide as more acceptable, such that a single unit increase on the normality subscale of the SOQ increases the odds of being a suicide ideator by 42%.…”

Opinions on Suicide and Perceived Barriers to Care in a Sample of United States Marine Non-Commissioned Officers: Implications for Future Frontline Supervisors' Suicide Prevention Training Programs

“…The following scores will be used for analysis: (1) total score; (2) scores on each of the 5 factors (36; 37); (3) scores on each of the 8 clinical scale model (14); and (4) scores on each of the factors identified through a principal components analysis for this study.…”

“…Additionally, female sex has been previously associated with opinions that suicide was a cry for help (4). Conflicting research has found differences between men and women on impulsivity; specifically that men were more likely than women to hold the opinion that suicide was impulsive (31) and that men were less likely than women to hold the opinion that suicide was impulsive (14). The findings presented here remain consistent across factors (acceptance, right to die, morally bad) and with sex differences on acceptability (6) suggesting that female sex is associated with less accepting opinions of suicide in Marine NCOs.…”

Development and psychometric evaluation of the Military Suicide Attitudes Questionnaire (MSAQ)

“…Attitudes along this continuum can be found in the Acceptability (e.g., "People with incurable diseases should be allowed to commit suicide in a dignified manner"), Right to Die (e.g., "Suicide prevention centers actually infringe on a person's right to take his life"), and Suicide is Normal (e.g., "Almost everyone has at one time or another thought about suicide") factors of the SOQ (Domino et al, 1988).…”