Suicide Among College Students in America Essay Example

Statistics from CDC indicates that suicidal is the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 15-34 across the USA (Mortier et al., 2017). Similarly, it is the second leading cause of death among college students. The connection to this situation has indicated that the onset of mental health conditions occurs during this time. The suicide among college students ranges from suicidal thoughts, activities, and in worst cases, the students attempt on their lives. Unfortunately, most of the college students suffer secretly with nobody or no intention of sharing such ideas for fear of harsh criticism or being stigmatized. This situation leaves the students undiagnosed and untreated which affect the academic and personal functioning among the college students.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

This study is important as it will focus mainly on the college students concerning the risk, causes, and prevention of suicide. Moreover, the suicide cases are rapidly increasing across the USA, and the findings of the study will provide recent input that will help to improve policies a clinical practice related to suicide among this group.

College students are mostly teenagers in their adolescent stage. Studies have revealed that adolescence is on the most stressful stages of human life (Arun, Garg, & Chavan, 2017). The stressors emanate from biological, social, academic, and psychological factors among other that makes the college students depressed and in dissolution state which disorients their thoughts. Some of these elements include the expectations of teachers, parents, and peers which pile pressure on the inexperienced teen and the result is stress

Furthermore, studies have shown that suicidal ideation is the most critical precursor for the suicidal attempt and subsequent death (Arria et al., 2009). The estimations from the national survey indicate that at least 11% of the college students have seriously considered suicide, while at least 7% designed a suicide plan, and around 2% attempted on their lives (Arria et al., 2009). The ideation of suicide has been linked to school dropout, mental health problems, anti-social behaviors, and substances abuse among other issues.

Additionally, the cases of LBGT college students in connection to suicide has not been given much attention, considering that they are a unique population and hence challenges that require tailored intervention (Shadick, Dagirmanjian, & Barbot, 2015). This group of college students is also at risk of suicidal activities due to discrimination and stigmatization among other social challenges they encounter at school. The limited literature available has revealed that the LGBT population among the college students are at a higher risk of committing suicide 2%-7%, higher than the heterosexual students (Shadick, Dagirmanjian, & Barbot, 2015). This statistic was revealed from a study of LGBT college students concerning their sibling concerning the suicidal risk. The LBGT was seen to have a higher propensity towards committing suicidal due to the social limitation they experience as a special group. The LGBT face challenges that their heterosexual counterparts face, but they additionally cope with those that arise tailored to their sexual orientation which makes the burden even higher for such adolescents to handle.

Fortunately, there are various ways to prevent suicide among college students. Various college campuses have programs for suicidal prevention aimed at identifying and treating the learners who are a risk or those attempting (Rodriguez & Huertas, 2013). For instance, these programs share information on the risk factors, causes, and where to seek help when a person has experienced particular thoughts or acted in a certain manner.

The annotated bibliography

Mortier, P., Demyttenaere, K., Auerbach, R. P., Cuijpers, P., Green, J. G., Kiekens, G., ... & Bruffaerts, R. (2017). First onset of suicidal thoughts and behaviours in college. Journal of affective disorders, 207, 291-299.

The topic of this article was focused on the first suicidal thoughts and behavior among college students. The study was a longitudinal survey that involved data from Leuven college survey, where incoming freshmen, 1253, provided details on their past 12 months on suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The survey ran for two years to cover data for all the participants. The variables being studies included the first onset of the suicidal ideation and behavior among college students, dependent, and the trigger and time of the onset on the independent side.

The result indicated the onset was within the one-year of joining school and causes were varied ranging from individual to population triggers. For instance, dating violence before the age of 17 years, betrayal by someone, and academic pressure led to the ideation of suicide. The source was a peer-reviewed article published under the journal of affective disorder. The conclusion of the study revealed that the first onset of the suicidal ideation and behavior among the college students was higher than that of the general population. Moreover, screening of the college entry students was considered an effective strategy to identify the college students at the highest risk. Hence the article was an ideal source of reference on the topic as it contains research information from an America college where the participants were students from the institution which enabled it to make a conclusion that was needed for the research.

The study experienced various limitations which included being the first study on the onset of the suicidal thoughts and behavior among college students there may be limited tools to establish the accuracy of the findings. Thus the recommendation to establish the accuracy is for future studies to apply validation samples to determine the preciseness of the multivariate prediction model they utilized.

Arun, P., Garg, R., & Chavan, B. S. (2017). Stress and suicidal ideation among adolescents having academic difficulty. Industrial psychiatry journal, 26(1), 64.

The topic of this article was stress and suicidal ideation among the college students experiencing academic difficulties. The approach to this topic was a cross-sectional study that involved 232 college students with different academic performance capabilities. 75 of the student were academically exceptional, 105 exhibited academic difficulties, while 52 has learning difficulties. Their academic functioning was assessed by using various tools such as the intelligence quotients and the national institute for mental health and neuroscience, index for a specific learning disability. The stress and suicidal ideation were evaluated using tools such as the general health questionnaire and suicidal risk-11 among other. The findings revealed that exceptionally performing students indicated higher levels of stress compared to the students with academic difficulty which also correlated with their propensity to commit suicide. The stress that led to suicide includes fear of examination, afraid of failure, the higher the expectation from family, unfair examination, and too much school work with little time to cover everything among other triggers.

The independent variable was those triggers, and the dependent include stress and suicidal ideation. The conclusion indicated that stress among adolescent is inevitable irrespective of their academic capability. Therefore, the management of stress among the college students should extend beyond the facets that solely focus on academic pressures. This source is a peer-reviewed article which makes it content authentic. The national institute of health endorsed the article and focused on the research topic which makes it ideal for reference during the study.

Arria, A. M., O'Grady, K. E., Caldeira, K. M., Vincent, K. B., Wilcox, H. C., & Wish, E. D. (2009). Suicide ideation among college students: A multivariate analysis. Archives of Suicide Research, 13(3), 230-246.

The topic covered under this article was suicidal ideation among the college students. The study method used for collecting the data was face to face interview. The data was drawn from 1249 first years' college students and placed under a multivariate analysis to enable the researcher to draw a reliable conclusion. The findings indicated that at least 6% of the first years under the study had suicidal ideations. The trigger of this situation was low social support, father-child conflict, depressive symptoms, and affective dysregulation among other factors. 40% of the participants were classified with low levels of depressive symptoms when placed on the standard measuring criteria. Those who reported low depressive symptoms this situation was directly correlated with the level of social support, affective dysregulation as a crucial predictor in suicidal ideation.

The independent variable was the triggers listed above while the dependent one was suicidal ideation. The study had various limitations which include despite the sample side being large the group of students with high depressive symptoms was fairly small which affected the ability of the analysis to show the difference in statistical significance between the two groups. Moreover, the sample population was obtained from a single public institution which makes it a challenge to generalize the results as a representative of the national college student's population.

The source is deal for referring in the research for this topic as it focused on the problem under study. Moreover, it is a journal article under the national institute of health, which makes it content authoritative to use in this context. The conclusion suggested further studies along the same line to replicate the findings to inform a reliable position on the topic.

Shadick, R., Dagirmanjian, F. B., & Barbot, B. (2015). Suicide risk among college student. Crisis.

The topic studies in this article were suicidal risk among college students. A quantitative study approach where questionnaires were used to gather information from first-year college students was utilized. The justification for the choice of freshman college students was given that during the first semester these students experience the transition which could predispose them to the suicide problem. The study collected data for 4345 students for four years. The hypothesis under consideration by this study was that belonging to an environment with multiple groups of the marginalized group may increase the negative development of mental outcome than an environment with single group membership.

The findings revealed that there was a correlation between minority status and risk for committing suicide. Moreover, the LGBT students were more likely than the heterosexual students to consider suicide. This conclusion was based on the data analysis that revealed that the LGBT group of college students have a higher rate of suicidal ideations. Additionally, the students of color were viewed to be less likely to commit suicide than their white counterparts in this context. The LBG situation within the institution moderated this situation. The independent variables include the being either single or multiple group membership while the dependent was the suicidal occurrences. The study considered one limitation which included placing the students of color and LBGT population under the same category of the minority which had a theoretical implication. This situation limited the recognition of the different experiences between these groups that increased their risk for suicide.

The source is a relation source of information since it addressed the topic under research. The article is peer-reviewed; thus its content is authentic to use for academic and also clinical purposes. The conclusion...