PERSONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AS PREDICTORS OF SUICIDAL IDEATION AND THE MODERATING ROLE OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT AMONG POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN.

Abstract

Suicide ideation is a serious psychological, social and cultural, public health problem and currently creates a lot of psychological concern to people of diverse backgrounds across the globe. Research on suicidal ideation  has gain attention globally. There is however dearth of this research in Nigeria. Consequently, this study therefore examined the influence of personal factors (Personality trait and Hopelessness) and environmental factors (Family cohesion and Perceived Stress) as predictors of suicidal ideation and the moderating role of perceived social support among post graduate students in University of Ibadan. Using survey design, 238 Postgraduate Students (Mean age = 37.77) were randomely sampled in University of Ibadan in Oyo State, Nigeria. The hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics.Result revealed that  personal factors jointly and independently predicted suicidal ideation. (R=.289; R² = .083, F (6,231) = 3.506, p<.01); Further, the influence of both personal and environmental factors was moderated by perceived social support. These results have important implications for the prevention of suicide, suggesting that suicide prevention programs, counseling centers, and psychology clinics on college campuses should include personality as well as familycohesion, hopelessness, and perceived stress in their assessment and identification of individuals who may be at risk for engaging in suicide ideation.

 Keywords: Personal factors, Environmental factors, Suicidal Ideation, Postgraduate students