Suicidal ideation and planning among Palestinian middle school students living in Gaza Strip, West Bank, and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) camps

Abstract

The goal of this study was to identify the prevalence and correlates of suicidal thinking among Palestinian middle school students by using complex samples analysis to explore data about suicidal ideation and suicidal planning in the past year from 14,303 students in grades 7, 8, and 9 (roughly ages 13–15 years) who participated in the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) in 2010 in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) refugee camps. We also analyzed data from the seven other GSHS-participating countries from the Eastern Mediterranean region: Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates. The overall prevalence of suicidal ideation and/or planning was 25.6%. Males were more likely than females to report suicidal thinking. The health behaviors and exposures most strongly associated with suicidal thinking were marijuana use, having no close friends, tobacco use, loneliness, worry-induced insomnia, food insecurity, and being the victim of a bully. Being involved in physical fights and attacks, skipping school, and perceptions of limited parental support were also associated with suicidal thinking. The prevalence of suicidal thinking among Palestinian adolescents was higher than the rates in the other GSHS-participating countries, pointing toward a need for improved access to adolescent mental health services.

Gender moderates the association between polyvictimization and suicidal ideation among adolescents in the United Arab Emirates

“…Other correlates of suicidal ideation in the UAE GSHS were related to victimization, mental health characteristics, peer relations, lack of parental understanding, and risk behaviors (cigarette use and missing school without permission). This multitude of correlates is consistent with findings from other studies about adolescent suicidality in the Eastern Mediterranean region (Mahfoud et al, 2011;Itani et al, 2017), and other GSHS studies conducted from around the world (Page, Saumweber, Hall, Crookston, & West, 2013). It is worth mentioning that female smokers reported higher odds of suicidal ideation than male smokers in their respective adjusted models.…”

“…The main findings show that 16.5% of the adolescents in this study reported seriously considering suicide in the past 12 months. This was comparable to other studies conducted in the Middle East that have participated in the GSHS (which had suicidal ideation rates ranging from 15.2 to 19.9%) (Itani et al, 2017) except for Iran where the prevalence was 4.1% among 15-17-year-old students (Ziaei et al, 2017). In the current study, female students reported a higher rate of suicidal ideation than males.…”

“…In the current study, female students reported a higher rate of suicidal ideation than males. This was consistent with a study conducted in Iran that used a similar methodology (Ziaei et al, 2017) but contradictory to a study in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that was based on GSHS data (Itani et al, 2017). Other correlates of suicidal ideation in the UAE GSHS were related to victimization, mental health characteristics, peer relations, lack of parental understanding, and risk behaviors (cigarette use and missing school without permission).…”

“…Existing studies in that region have either focused on violent behavior (Sibai, Tohme, Beydoun, Kanaan, & Sibai, 2009) or on suicidal ideation (Mahfoud et al, 2011;Itani, Jacobsen, & Kraemer, 2017) and have yet to examine the association between polyvictimization and suicidal ideation. The current study aims at bridging the gap in the literature by exploring the latter association in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).…”

Characteristics of patients attending the child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient clinic in Erbil city

“…On the other hand, we noticed that patients who disclosed their suicidal ideations were less than 1%. This percentage is very low compared to what other studies have reported from Palestine, Lebanon and Morocco[45–47] and considering that suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents generally according to Anderson et al[48]. This low number is probably due to inadequate information and awareness of the families about suicide among children and adolescents, and the fact that adolescent suicidal behavior is a neglected public health issue, especially in developing countries.…”