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Perceived Stressors of Suicide and Potential Prevention Strategies for Suicide Among Youths in Malaysia

2015; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 3; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/21683603.2014.920285

2168-3611

Jin Kuan Kok, Gertina J. van Schalkwyk, Andrea Huan Wen Chan,

Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion

AbstractThe suicide rate among youths in Malaysia has increased over the years, giving rise to considerable public concern. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe potential stressors of suicide and suicide prevention strategies as perceived by youths in Malaysia aged 15–25 years. A qualitative approach was adopted and 625 students from different states of peninsular Malaysia, including East Malaysia, responded to two open-ended sentence completion questions on a survey. This paper reports on the thematic analysis of the two open-ended questions that yielded textual data. The findings showed that relationship problems, family problems, academic issues, and emotional problems were the top four perceived stressors for suicidality. Some protective factors were also elicited, which could provide insights for the development of prevention strategies of suicide. Some of the perceived stressors and strategies were related to cultural issues and are discussed against the backdrop of the Malaysian context.Keywords:: StressorssuicideMalaysian youthsuicide prevention AcknowledgementsWe are grateful for all the secondary school principals who gave permission for us to conduct the survey, Ms. Sim Chzia Poaw who helped us, and also all the participants who shared their thoughts and feelings with us in the data collection process.FundingThis research was partly sponsored by UTARRF from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia.Additional informationNotes on contributorsJin Kuan KokJin Kuan Kok, MEd, EdD, is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology and Counseling, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). She has extensive counseling experience with young people and families. Her research interests include narrative inquiry, teenage suicide, and depression.Gertina J. van SchalkwykGertina J. van Schalkwyk, PhD, is principal investigator for the development of the Collage Life-Story Elicitation Technique (CLET). She is a fellow of the Oxford Symposium on School-Based Family Counseling. Her research interests are family studies, identity development, narrative inquiry, school-based child and family counseling, and collaborative teaching and learning.Andrea Huan Wen ChanAndrea Huan Wen Chan, MPhil (Social Science), has the interest and experience of working with youths. She is currently working as a research analyst at one of the top market research firms in Malaysia.