The relationships of religiosity and personality with suicidal ideation

Abstract

The prevalence of suicidal ideation (SI) has been studied among a sample of some 500 undergraduate students in the UK, and related to several behavioural and attitudinal religious variables and individual personality differences as measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. SI was not significantly associated with age, but men appeared more likely to entertain suicidal thoughts than women. There were no significant differences in the mean levels of SI with respect to church affiliation or the frequency of church attendance and personal prayer. A comparison of the predictive effects of religious orientation, as measured by the subscales of the Revised Religious Life Inventory, and the Eysenckian higher order personality dimensions of extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, and social conformity indicated that the contributions made by the religious orientations were small. Neuroticism was a strong predictor of SI, closely followed by psychoticism. This study has not confirmed the generally found negative relationship between SI and religiosity, and has shown that the observed variance in SI is substantially explained by individual differences in personality.