SOCIAL AND INTERPERSONAL FACTORS OF SUICIDE IDEATION AMONG UNDERGRADUATES IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN EDO STATE

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the social and interpersonal factors of suicide ideation among undergraduate students in environmental sciences in public universities in Edo state. The objectives of the study was to establish whether family environment, socio-economic status, academic stress, bullying victimisation and social connectedness predicts suicide ideation among undergraduate students in public universities. In order to accomplish these purposes, five (5) research questions were raised to guide the study and five (5) hypotheses were also formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The correlational survey design was adopted for this study. The population that was employed for the study consisted of 1070 full time undergraduate students in the Faculty of Environmental Sciences from University of Benin, Benin City and Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma. The sample of 214 students which represents 20% of the population was used for this study. The instrument used for this study was the questionnaire which was validated by the researcher’s supervisor and two other experts in the Department of Education, Faculty of Arts and Education, Benson Idahosa University, Edo State. The test – retest method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument which yielded a co-efficient of 0.95. The findings of this study indicated that there was significant influence of family environment, socio-economic status, bullying victimisation and social connectedness in predicting suicide ideation among undergraduate students in public universities. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that counsellors, psychiatrists and health educators should emphasize the importance of students’ family size, family type and the parenting style of their parents in order to curtail the risk of their involvement in suicide ideation; lecturers and other educational stakeholders should discourage the prevalence of oppression, ill treatment as well as unfriendly relationship among students through seminars, other training opportunities and workshops. In addition, counsellors, lecturers and other educational stakeholders should promote and encourage students’ relationship through good communication network, administrative support and team work in order to give room for better harmonious environment.