Literacy Level on suicide among university students

Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide among people aged 15-29 years. These data show the urgent need to address this problem, and literacy is fundamental to doing so. The objective of this study is to determine the level of literacy about suicide and examine differences in literacy scores among students from different subject areas, as well as differences in literacy levels in the presence of psychological problems or suicidal behaviour in personal or family history in an incidental sample of students from the University of Malaga. An incidental sample of 443 students (364 women) was obtained and completed the Literacy of Suicide Scale, short form. It was answered before attending a lecture about suicide (attendance was voluntary). The scores obtained were compared according to the field of study and the presence or absence of a history of psychological problems and suicidal behaviour, both personally and in the family. An exploratory cross-sectional and ex post facto exploratory analysis was applied using Student's test, analysis of variance, Eta squared, and Cohen's d. Analyses performed showed that participants had a high knowledge of suicidal behaviour. By studying the dimensions that make up suicidal behaviour literacy through exploratory cross-sectional and ex post facto analysis, Differences were found in the literacy dimensions, with causes/triggers and signs being the weakest. Students with the highest literacy levels were those in the arts and humanities. Students with psychological problem histories showed higher total literacy, but no differences were found for those with or without suicidal behaviour histories. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that more emphasis should be placed on educating students about the causes and warning signs of suicidal behavior. Likewise, university suicide prevention programs should be designed to reach out to science students in particular. Knowing who to target and what aspects to teach will help practitioners and researchers to design programs that will actually have a positive impact on suicidal behavior literacy in the university population

Exploratory research · Literacy · Poison control · Suicide prevention · COVID-19 and Mental Health · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Mental Health via Writing · Suicide and Self-Harm Studies