Suicide Ideation Associations with Attitudes toward Suicide, Quality of Life, and Attitudes toward Death and Dying among Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese High School Seniors

Abstract

Suicide of an individual could leave devastating consequences for family, friends, relatives, and society. Suicide could be considered a serious concern and issue to public health, especially among adolescents. The purpose of the study was to examine associations of suicide ideation with attitudes toward suicide (ATS), quality of life (QOL), and attitudes toward death and dying (ADD) in high school seniors. The participants were conveniently sampled and consisted of 1,247 high school senior students from China, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. The survey found that 21.7% of the Chinese, 20.9% of the Korean, 16.8% of the Thai, and 26.3% of the Vietnamese participants exhibited suicide ideation. The analysis revealed that student suicide ideation was significantly associated with ATS, QOL, and sustained elements of depression during the past 12 months in all four countries. In addition, there were statistically differences among the Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese students in QOL, ATS, and ADD. The analysis determined that there were certain predictive factors for suicide ideation in the participants. The impact of these findings could extend to professional roles within the school system including curricula and services. Administrators, faculty, or social workers could gain a better understanding of the current suicide ideation phenomenon and help raise awareness to reduce potential suicide attempts among high school students in these Asian countries.

Suicidal behaviors and depression “among adolescents in Hanoi, Vietnam: A multilevel analysis of data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2019

“…Our results confirm that suicidal behaviors and depression are a common problem among adolescents in Vietnam (Kay et al, 2012;. This study found the high 12-month prevalence of suicidal behaviors and depression scores mean among adolescence in Cau Giay district, Hanoi, Vietnam.…”

“…The results showed that the highest prevalence of suicidal ideation was in the Philippines (17.0%) and Vietnam (16.9%) (Peltzer and Pengpid, 2017). In 2012, a cross-sectional study of 1247 students conducted in 3 countries—China, Thailand, and Vietnam—showed that the 12-month prevalence of suicidal ideation was highest in Vietnam (Kay et al, 2012). To our best knowledge, despite the high and increasing prevalence of suicidal behaviors among adolescents, research into the risk factors that correlate with suicidal behaviors, especially depression has been extremely limited in comparison to other countries.…”

Moderation effects of perfectionism and discrimination on interpersonal factors and suicide ideation.

“…Recent studies have also identified relatively high rates of suicide ideation among high school and college students in several Asian countries. In a study (Kay et al, 2012) examining suicide ideation among Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese high school seniors, approximately 20% of all participants reported suicide ideation over the past year. Similar levels of suicide ideation were reported by Chinese college students in another study (Zhang, Wang, Xia, Liu, & Jung, 2012).…”

School Social Work in Preventing Suicide Ideation Among Minority Ethnic Boarding Students in Vietnam

“…The results showed that the highest prevalence of suicidal ideation was in the Philippines (17.0%) and Vietnam (16.9%) [11]. In 2012, a cross-sectional study of 1247 students conducted in 3 countries-China, Thailand, and Vietnam-showed that the 12-month prevalence of suicidal ideation was highest in Vietnam [6]. In Vietnam, a school-based survey was conducted in three high schools in 2019 among 661 high students found that the prevalence of 12-month suicidal thoughts, suicide plans, and suicide attempts were 14.2%, 5.5%, and 3.0%, respectively [9,15].…”