Suicidal behaviors, social support and reasons for living among nursing students

Abstract

The transition to higher education involves many changes for students. The aim of the study was to characterize nursing students' suicidal behaviors, use of medication, social support and reasons for living. A quantitative cross-sectional and correlational descriptive study was conducted at a Portuguese nursing college. The Social Support Satisfaction Scale (Pais-Ribeiro, 1999) and the Reasons for Living Inventory (Matias and Santos, 2014) were used. Most nursing students are women, with a mean age of 20years, and most of them have siblings. The majority of them lives outside the city of Coimbra. Approximately 5% of students showed suicidal behaviors, being more frequent among women. Around 20% of the students take medication, with a higher prevalence among women. Fourth-year students had the lowest reasons for living and satisfaction with social support scores. Five percent of the students had a history of suicidal behaviors. Nine percent of the students take psychotropic medications. The students who take medication are 2.3578 times more likely to have suicidal behaviors. Fourth-year students had the lowest mental health scores. Third-year students were the most satisfied with social support, whereas fourthyear students were the least satisfied. First-year students had the highest reasons for living scores, whereas fourth-year students had the lowest scores.