An experimental research on implicit and explicit suicide attitude of college students

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relationship of college students' explicit and implicit attitudes to suicide and the feasibility of applying B-IAT to measure their suicide attitude. Methods Explicit suicide attitude was primarily investigated by suicide attitude questionnaire(SAQ), and implicit attitudes experimental study was carried out by suicide brief implicit association test (B-IAT). The subjects of this study included 50 college students, and it was used within-subject design. Results ①Each dimension values of explicit suicide attitude was from 2.5 to 3.5, indicating that the subject's explicit suicide attitude dominated by neutral or contradictory. ②The mean of B-IAT was 0.43, indicating that the subjects' implicit suicide attitude was prone to negative. ③College students’ suicide explicit and implicit attitudes were statistically no significant correlation, indicating that students' implicit suicide attitudes was independent of explicit attitudes. Conclusion It is feasible to measure explicit suicide attitudes by B-IAT.College students’ implicit suicide attitudes is independent of explicit attitudes. The results from simple IAT may be more accurately reflects the subjects’ true attitudes towards suicide. Key words: College students; Implicit suicide attitude; Simplified IAT