What makes them suicidal?: College students’ Stress coping method as predictors of suicidal ideation

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 9:45am
  In Poster Session: Counseling Poster Session A

Abstract

By analyzing 944 first-year college students, this quantitative study examined students’ patterns on stress coping and the impact of their coping method on suicidal ideation. We found four different patterns of coping style: engagement, disengagement, primary control, and secondary control. We also found that students who tend to cope with stress with disengaged method are more likely to be suicidal compared to their peers who use engaging method as stress coping mechanism. As personal tendency and decision making process on stress-coping method are directly related to suicidal ideation, it is important to provide psycho-educational trainings for students to learn about proactive ways to cope with stress to prevent severe psychological problems.

Authors

• Katie K. Koo, University of Georgia

• Sohee Kim, University of South Alabama