Suicidal Behaviour and Related Risk Factors among School-Aged Youth in the Republic of Benin

Abstract

IntroductionResearch on factors associated with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts has been conducted largely in developed countries. Research on West African countries in particular is lacking.MethodsData were obtained from the Global School-based Health Survey conducted in Benin in 2009. This was a cross-sectional study of three grades, spanning Junior and Senior High, which sampled a total of 2,690 adolescents. Data on the occurrence of demographic, psycho-social and socio-environmental risk factors were tested using multinomial logistic regression for their association with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.ResultsThe survey indicated that 23.2% had thought about suicide and 28.3% had made a suicide attempt in the previous year. Anxiety, loneliness, being bullied, alcohol misuse, illicit drug use, and lack of parental support were independently related to the ideation outcomes, suicidal ideation without planning and suicidal ideation with planning. Multinomial regression analysis, using one suicide attempt and multiple suicide attempts as outcomes, revealed that female sex, anxiety, loneliness, being physically attacked, and illicit drug use were associated these outcomes.DiscussionThe prevalence of suicide attempts reported in the survey is relatively high. It is possible that there are cultural factors that could explain this finding. Our research indicates that many factors are related to the occurrence of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among youth in Benin. Illicit drug use and violence in particular are associated with a high rate of suicide attempts in Benin. Measures to address these issues may reduce the risk of self-inflicted violence.

Factors Associated with Suicidal Ideation and Suicidal Attempts among Adolescent Students in Nepal: Findings from Global School Based Students Health Survey

“…However, the children who missed school at least 3 times without any permission were found to have almost 2 folds higher risk of having suicidal attempt. Previous similar study 11 done in Republic of Benin had not found any significant association of truancy with suicidal ideation and attempts [34]. However, the variable should be dealt in conjugation with other factors like feeling lonely, having close friends and being worried.…”

“…Findings are consistent with most of other studies done in other parts of world. Higher odds of having suicidal ideation was reported in previous studies done in Uganda, Lebanon, Thailand and Republic of Benin when children were worried [15,26,31,34]. Findings are quite usual as adolescents often consider suicide as means to overcome anxiety or distress in life.…”

Loneliness and Health Risk Behaviors Among ASEAN Adolescents

“…Hence, the current study will examine loneliness and its association with various adolescents' health risk behaviours. Being lonely has been found to be associated with anxiety, depressive symptoms, low self-esteem, perceived stress (7,10), suicidal ideation (11), and psychiatric morbidity (10). Moreover, loneliness was found to be associated with alcohol use, binge drinking, smoking, and illicit drug use (2,3).…”

Mediators between adverse childhood experiences and suicidality

“…In fact, among adults, both depression and alcohol use disorders have been reported to mediate the relation between suicidality and ACEs (Dube et al, 2001(Dube et al, , 2002Felitti et al 1998). Both interpersonal difficulties (Johnson et al, 2002) and family factors influence suicidal behavior in adolescents (Laukkanen, Honkalampi, Hintikka, Hintikka, & Lehtonen, 2005;Randall, Doku, Wilson, & Peltzer, 2014). Interestingly, in a longitudinal study by Johnson et al (2002), interpersonal difficulties mediated the association between maladaptive parenting and offspring's later suicidality.…”