Perceived Stress as a Predisposing Factor in Suicidality among Adolescents

Abstract

Background and Objectives: This paper deals with the suicidality among adolescents in relation to perceived stress in life. It has been estimated that over one million people kill themselves in our country and suicidality is one of the important psychological variables leading to suicidal deaths and the younger generation happens to be a very vulnerable group to suicide. Methods: It was hypothesized that higher the perceived stress by the participants, higher the suicidal tendency among the adolescents and vice-versa. In all, 290 randomly selected adolescents (Male= 140; Female= 150) of higher secondary classes participated in this study. They were administered the Global Perceived Stress Scale (Singh & Pathak, 2016) and the TS Suicidal Ideation scale (2004). Results: The descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. It was found that perceived stress is a potential cause of suicidality Conclusion: The results suggest that the higher the level of perceived stress, higher the chances of indulging in suicidal thoughts. The proposed hypotheses were approved. The results are thoroughly discussed and interpreted and the implications of the finding are properly underlined. Besides, limitations and suggestions of the present study are also indicated.