Suicide Risk and Protective Factors for College Students
September 10, 2013
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, a day devoted to mobilizing global action for suicide prevention through awareness-building and research efforts. Held annually on September 10th, World Suicide Prevention Day serves as a reminder of the lives lost to suicide each year and acts as a motivating force to encourage wide-spread prevention efforts. According to the American College Health Association Fall 2012 National College Health Assessment data, 6.9% of college students reported seriously considering suicide in the past year. The CDC lists suicide as the second leading cause of death among college students, resulting in about 1,100 lives lost each year on college campuses. Educators and peers both play a critical role in identifying at-risk students and helping to increase factors that promote resiliency in these students.
What better time to reassess the well-being of your students than after they return from summer break? This crucial time away allows educators and counseling staff to look at students through a clean lens. Changes that might have seemed minute in day-to-day interactions can become easier to identify. Some risk factors for suicide to look for include:
- Untreated or under-treated mental illness
- Alcohol or other drug use and abuse
- Previous suicide attempt
- Hopelessness
- Impulsivity or aggressiveness
- Barriers to effective clinical care
- Isolation or lack of social support
- Unsupported financial/social loss
- Stigma associated with seeking care
Protective factors are personal or environmental characteristics that reduce the probability of suicide. As we know, protective factors help students develop the capacity to cope positively with the effects of risk factors. Below are some of the most common protective factors for college students:
- Strong connections to family and other supports
- Access to effective clinical interventions
- Restricted access to lethal means
- Skills in problem-solving and conflict resolution
- Frustration tolerance and ability to regulate emotions
- Positive beliefs about future, ability to cope and life in general
- Cultural or religious beliefs
- Involvement in campus activities such as clubs and athletics
- Feeling of empowerment to make decisions on one’s own
There are numerous ways that colleges can work to build up the resiliency skill set for students. One of the most important ways is ensuring access to effective clinical interventions. With diminishing college budgets, it has become much more difficult to satisfy the demands for students who are seeking treatment. Many colleges are using online assessments as a way to target at-risk students and enable them to seek treatment. To promote the development of protective factors on the individual level, counseling centers can help students to develop comprehensive problem-solving skills, non-violent conflict resolution and emotional regulation.
As classes resume for another semester this fall, remember to watch out for risk factors for suicide in your students. Think about what protective factors your college currently supports for its student body and identify areas that could be strengthened. Building up protective factors on your campus is a good step to developing solid resiliency skills in your students.