suicidal behaviors of college students

There is no more painful disruption to the structure of campus life than that
caused by a student suicide. A suicide brings to a halt the daily patterns of
teaching, research, and scholarship that defi ne college life, and calls into question
a campus’s safety, security, and stability (Silverman, 2005a).
Greater awareness of the rate of suicidal behaviors and completed suicide,
as well as the relationship of suicidal behaviors to precipitating stressors and
depressive symptoms, may well elevate the importance of focusing on campus
outreach and treatment programs (Kitzrow, 2003). But despite the self-evident significance of this leading cause of death for the college-aged student, suicide
on campuses remains a very poorly understood phenomenon, shrouded by
inconsistent fi ndings derived from noncomparable studies. Further, while the
general literature on young adults’ suicidal behaviors (ideation, threats, gestures,
attempts, and completions) is large and diverse, any serious attempt
to synthesize the fi ndings is marred by major inconsistencies in defi nitions,
methodologies, and reporting techniques (Maris, Berman, Maltsberger, &
Yufi t, 1992; O’Carroll et al., 1996; Silverman, 1993).
College students (predominantly 17–23 years old) and graduate students
(mainly 24–34 years old) remain a particularly neglected population in terms
of accurate epidemiological health surveys (Patrick, Grace, & Lovato, 1992).
One reason is because they fall into age groups that straddle the conventional
reporting categories (15–19, 20–24, 25–29, and so forth) used to identify
behavioral health risk factors. As a result, the early survey studies of Schwartz
and Reifl er (1980, 1988) were unable to answer many of the epidemiological
questions associated with completed suicide, leaving unaddressed the identifi
cation of modifi able risk factors (Silverman, 1993).
And while the literature is now growing on these risk factors (psychological,biological, genetic, sociocultural, and environmental), public attention
has focused mainly on the rates of completed suicides (Silverman, 1993; Silverman,
Meyer, Sloane, Raffel, & Pratt, 1997). The inquiries generated by campus
offi cials and professionals always begin with concerns about “how many” and
“how often.” To understand suicide we obviously must dig deeper and explore
the underlying risk factors.