Influence of Demographic Variables on Suicidal Tendency among Arts and Science College Students

Abstract

Introduction: Suicidal tendency is common among college students as a result of various factors like academic pressure, family problems, love failure, etc. It is presumed that there would be influence of demographic variables (i.e. age, gender, department, family type, family income and history of previous mental illness) on suicidal tendency among college students. Aim: The aim of this research study was to assess the influence of selected demographic variables (i.e. age, gender, department, family type, family income and history of previous mental illness) on suicide tendency among arts and science college students. Materials and Methods: The sample comprised of 84 respondents of arts and science students and Simple random sampling by lottery method was used. The following questionnaire was used to collect the data 1) Demographic variables: It includes respondents‟ age, gender, department, class, family income, type of family, residence area and history of mentally illness of the respondent. 2) Suicidal tendency scale. Results: 33.3% of the respondents were up to 18 years of age, 32.1% of the respondents were in the age group of 19 years, 20% of the respondents were in the age group of 20 years of age, 10.7% of the respondents were above 21 years of age, 2.4% of the respondents were in the age group of 22 years of age and 1.2% of the respondents were above 17 years of age. 56% of the respondents were males and 44% of the respondents were females. 50% of the respondents belong to sociology department and 50% of the respondents belong to psychology department. 72.2% of the respondents belong to nuclear family and 23.8% of the respondents belong to joint family. 53.3% of the respondents have monthly income above Rs. 5000-10000, 31% of the respondents have monthly income above Rs. below 5000 and 15.5% of the respondents have monthly income up to Rs. Above 10000. 97.6% of the respondents had no previous mental illness in the family and only 2.4 percent of the respondents had previous mental illness in the family. Conclusion: This research study found that there was a significant impact of age and family income with respect to suicidal tendency among the respondents.