Media reporting, public enlightenment campaigns and suicidal tendencies among Oshodi Youths, Lagos State, Nigeria: Counselling implications

Abstract

This study examined the influence of media reporting and public enlightenment campaigns on suicidal behaviour among Oshodi youths in Lagos State, Nigeria. The survey research design was adopted. From a population consisting of all the Oshodi youths, the Snowball sampling technique proposed by Jones (1997) was used to select 150 respondents. Three hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance were formulated to guide the study. A researcher-made questionnaire ‘Media Reporting and Public Enlightenment Campaign Questionnaire (MRAPECQ)’ was used for data collection. The population t-test and independent t-test were used for data analysis. Findings revealed that suicidal tendency among Oshodi youths was not significantly high and media reporting and public enlightenment campaigns did not significantly influence suicidal tendency. Counselling implications and recommendations were proffered such as, Counsellors are to ensure that a more restrained reporting of suicidal cases is used as a way of decreasing the imitation or copycat effect, and the need to counsel those embarking on public enlightenment campaigns to make them youth-friendly