In Korea, the suicide rate has increased consistently for recent years, the methods of the suicide has been diversified and this trend has a great ripple effect on the society. In 2009 alone, the number of death by suicide reached 15,413, which means ...
In Korea, the suicide rate has increased consistently for recent years, the methods of the suicide has been diversified and this trend has a great ripple effect on the society. In 2009 alone, the number of death by suicide reached 15,413, which means 42.2 persons per day, and reportedly, the first major cause of death in age groups from 10's to 30's was "suicide" in this country. This high suicide rate in the adolescent, who are supposed to prepare for their future, suggests the suicide is one of main risk factors for the adolescent's mental health in general.
This research aims to identify how well adolescent suicide preventive education program works for the adolescent, when the program is carried out. The preventive program is developed especially for adolescents to educate them how valuable life is and to let them know about right attitude toward suicide.
32 boys and girls, currently attending H middle school (the 1st year students) within C area, are chosen as experimental group and another 32 boys and girls, also currently attending S middle school (the 1st year students) within the same C area, are chosen as control group by random sampling.
The data was collected between March, 10 and April, 25 in 2011 and both pre-test and post-test were conducted on both experimental group and control group. Two weeks after the preventive education, the following test was conducted only for the experimental group.
Life - esteem scale, attitude toward suicide scale, suicidal risk scale were used for the measurement and adolescent suicide preventive education program, which had already developed by the Korean Association for Suicide Prevention, was modified and then used for the preventive education program for this research.
The collected data was analyzed by SPSS WIN 18.0 program and Chi-square analysis were used for comparison between the experimental group and the control group. Homogeneity within the two groups were verified by t-test. And pre-test and post-test outcomes for both the experimental group and the control group and research hypothesis were verified by paired t-test. t-test. Then further changes of the program were verified by repeated measurement ANOVA.
The findings are as follows.
1. After the preventive program, the experimental group's life-esteem is significantly higher than the control group's(t= 2.453, p=.017).
2. After the preventive program conducted, the experimental group's attitude toward suicide is significantly lower than the control group's(t=-2.403, p=.019).
3. After the preventive program conducted, the experimental group's suicidal risk is significantly lower than the other group's(t=-2.113, p=.039).
4. In 2 weeks, after the suicide preventive program for adolescent being carried out, life-esteem, attitude toward suicide and suicidal risk of the test group's were re-measured. According to this result, life-esteem(F=7.852, p=.001) and suicidal risk (F=5.201,p=.008)showed statistically significant difference, meaning the program's effect was maintained, however, attitude toward suicide (F=1.143, p=.325) did not show significant difference,
meaning its effect was not maintained. Therefore, in order to maintain its effect. it is highly recommended that the following preventive program for attitude toward suicide be carried out.
As represented above, the findings show suicide preventive education program for adolescent works well for enhancing their life-esteem, correcting their wrong attitude toward suicide, decreasing their suicidal risk. In other words, the program will be very effective , assumably, to raise adolescents' life-esteem and to make them become healthier members of this society. Therefore, by being introduced to the schools and the communities throughout the nation, this program is highly expected to contribute to adolescent suicide prevention.
Key Words : Life - esteem , Suicidal Attitude, Suicidal Risk, Suicide Preventive Program for Adolescent