Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Nov;33(6):1037-1048.
doi: 10.4314/ejhs.v33i6.14.

Magnitude and Associated Factors of Suicidal Ideation and Attempts among High School Adolescents of Jimma Town, Ethiopia

Hayat Mohamed Aliy  1 , Habtamu Abebe Getahun  2 , Lelisa Sena Dadi  2
Affiliations

Magnitude and Associated Factors of Suicidal Ideation and Attempts among High School Adolescents of Jimma Town, Ethiopia

Hayat Mohamed Aliy et al. Ethiop J Health Sci. 2023 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Studies show that suicidal ideation and attempt are major predictors of suicide. Flourishing technologies such cyber bullying, increased local and global events, like pandemics, wars, and effects of climate change exacerbate vulnerability of adolescents to mental health problems. Thus, timely epidemiological information is important for evidence-based practices. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the magnitude and associated factors of suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt among school adolescents.

Methods: A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted in June 2022 on randomly selected 1144 school adolescents using multistage sampling technique. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Then, data were cleaned, entered into Epi-data V.3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 26. Multivariable logistic regression was done to identify predictors of suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt among adolescents. Adjusted odds ratio and confidence interval (CI) were respectively used to measure statistical associations and their statistical significance.

Results: The prevalence of lifetime suicidal ideation and attempt were 22.5%, and 13.3%, respectively, while 12-month suicidal ideation and attempt were found to be 14.6% and 10%, respectively. Being female, disappointment in school results, family history of suicide attempt, current alcohol intake, anxiety, and chronic medical condition were significantly associated with both suicidal ideation and attempt while cyber bullying was significantly associated with suicidal ideation only.

Conclusions: Unsupportive home environment plus behavioral and medical conditions predispose school adolescents to suicidal ideation and attempt. The Ministry of Education and school administrations should facilitate favorable environment that enhance mental health awareness and protection of school adolescents. Building better parent-child relationship and parental discretion on the use of mobile phones can mitigate suicidal ideation and attempt.

Keywords: Adolescents; Ethiopia; Jimma; Suicidal attempt; Suicidal ideation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic presentation of sampling procedure of study participants
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Khan MM. Suicide prevention and developing countries. J R Soc Med. 2005;98:459–463. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nebhinani N, Jain S. Adolescent mental health: Issues, challenges, and solutions. Ann Indian Psychiatry. 2019;3(1):4.
    1. Onder Y, Onder SG. Suicidal ideation among high school students : How gender, bullying victimization, being threatened/ injured, hopelessness / sadness, and sleep disturbance help us to predict. MedCrave. 2021;9(3):102.
    1. WHO, author. Mental Health Action Plan 2013 - 2020. Geneva: 2013.
    1. WHO, author. Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2030. Geneva: 2021.

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources