Perception of Suicide among Higher Secondary Level Students

Background: A descriptive study entitled "Perception of Suicide among Higher Secondary Level Students" was carried out to find out the perception of suicide among 130 students of New Life Higher Secondary School, Bardaghat Makar-4, Nawalparasi, Nepal. Materials and Methods: Non probability purposive sampling technique with self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect the data and analyzed with the help of descriptive statistics. The study findings revealed that all the respondents were between the age group of 15-19 years. Results: Out of 130 respondents, most of them (34.6%) belong to 18 years age group. Most of the respondents were female (61.5%) and majority of the respondents (86.6%) followed Hindu religion. Likewise most of the respondents (66.9%) were strongly disagreed with the statement “Suicide is act of intentionally causing one's death” whereas (1.5%) respondent neutrally to this statement. Likewise, most of the respondents (68.5%) were strongly agreed that suicide can be prevented; whereas minimum of the respondents (3.1%) were disagreed with this statement. about (13.1%) strongly agreed that people who complete suicide are usually mentally ill; whereas a very few of the respondents (3.1%) were disagreed to this statement. Majority of respondents (64.6%) strongly disagreed that they would be afraid of their parents or friends might believe that they are thinking about suicide if they did participate. Almost 70% of the respondents strongly agreed that suicide attempters seeking attention whereas majority of the participants (72.3%) strongly disagreed that if someone wants to complete suicide, it is their business and we should not interfere. Maximum of the respondents were strongly agreed that talking about wanting to die, looking for a way to kill oneself, acting anxious, agitated or recklessly, withdrawing or feeling isolated etc. are the warning signs of suicide. Conclusion: The findings of the study concluded that most of the students were unknown about the actual meaning of suicide but however, they knows the warning signs, its negative impact in family , society & the preventive measures and also most of the students were strongly disagreed with this statement "suicide is a normal behavior".