The Correlations of Attitudes toward Suicide with Death Anxiety, Religiosity, and Personal Closeness to Suicide

Abstract

College students from four different institutions were asked to report their attitudes toward suicide, their anxiety about death, the degree of their religiosity, the substance of their religious beliefs, and the seriousness with which they had considered suicide. The more supportive students were about the right of people in general to commit suicide and the more situations they felt would justify their own suicide, the more anxious they felt about death, the less strongly they were committed to a religion, and the more seriously they had thought about committing suicide. A discussion about the ramifications of these results for the college campus is included.

The relationship of religious variables to death depression and death anxiety

“…Young and Daniels (1980) reported that bornagain Christians had lower death anxiety than non-born-again Christians. Minean and Brush (1980) found a slight, but significant relationship between death anxiety and a belief in an afterlife. In research by Aday (1984) it was found that greater church attendance was associated with lower death anxiety.…”

“…All subjects were administered the Death Anxiety Scale , the Death Depression Scale , and the religious inventory contained in Table 1 and used in previous research (Franks et al, 1990;Templer, 1972;Templer & Dotson, 1970;Templer & Ruff, 1971). Item 1 was used for descriptive purposes.…”

Religion and Spirituality Along the Suicidal Path

“…A number of studies found that religious factors are associated with lower rates of suicidal ideation (Eskin, 2003; Hovey, 1999; Nonnemaker, McNeely, & Blum, 2003; Shagle & Barber, 1995) and plans (Jahangir et al, 1998) or with more negative attitudes toward suicidal behavior (Bagley & Ramsay, 1989; Bender, 2000; Domino, Cohen, & Gonzales, 1981; Domino & Miller, 1992; Domino, Niles, & Raj, 1993; Donahue & Benson, 1995; Eskin, 2003; Hoelter, 1979; King, Hampton, Bernstein & Schichor, 1996; Leane & Shute, 1998; Loewenthal, MacLeod, Cook, Lee & Goldblatt, 2003; Marion & Range, 2003; Minear & Brush, 1980; Neeleman, 1998; Neele‐man, Halpern, Leon, & Lewis, 1997; Neeleman, Wessely, & Lewis, 1998; Siegrist, 1996; Stack, 1998a, 1998b; Stack, Wasserman, & Kposowa, 1994; Stein et al, 1989). Colucci's (2008b) recent study with 18–24 years old Italian, Indian and Australian students showed that, in India, students who defined themselves as religious/spiritual reported lower suicidal ideation compared to those who were non‐religious/spiritual.…”

Sex Differences in Peer Responsiveness to Suicide Ideation

“…Reports of suicide among the 15–24 year‐old age group have increased alarmingly in the last few years. Suicide is second to accidents as a cause of death in this age group (Mack & Hickler, 1981; Minear & Brush, 1981). Many of the suicide victims are college students.…”