Prevalence of suicidal ideation and hopelessness among students at a state university in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This study aimed at exploring suicide ideation and its relationship to hopelessness in university students in Zimbabwe. The study was quantitative utilising the cross sectional design. Questionnaires were distributed to a convenient sample of 102 final year students. These were drawn from three departments in the Faculty of Social Sciences (62.7% females, 37.3% males) with a mean age of 22.05 years. Hopelessness was measured using items extracted from the 39 item Depression Hopelessness and Suicide (DHS) Screening Form. Suicidal ideation was measured by items extracted from the DHS and a few that were derived from literature. Both instruments had Cronbach alpha above 0.7. Forty three percent of the study participants said things did not go their way, 35.3% said life was hard for them and 16.7% thought their situation was hopeless as measured by the hopelessness scale. In terms of suicidal ideation 15.7% indicated that they had told someone that they wanted to die, 14.7% had thought of killing themselves and 13.7% had a plan to kill themselves but did not follow it through. Hopelessness was found to be related to total suicidal ideation scores. Knowledge and awareness about the prevalence of and factors associated with suicidality among young people at university is important for institutions of higher learning in order to offer adequate suicide prevention programs for their students.