Suicidal Ideation among Undergraduates in Nigeria: The Predictive Role of Personality Traits and Academic Stress

Abstract

In recent times, the life challenges experienced by individuals are becoming increasingly enormous due to changes in the dynamics of the society and life circumstances. Thus, suicide is sought by some individuals as a way of escaping from their unbearable life challenges. This study examined the predictive effect of personality traits and academic stress on suicidal ideation among undergraduates in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka. A sample of 203 participants were selected using the multi-stage sampling technique. The ages of the participants ranged from 18yeaars to 29years, with a mean age of 22.53 and standard deviation of 2.33. Three instruments namely the Big-Five Personality Inventory by John, Donalue and Kentle (1991), student Academic Stress Scale by Busari (2011) and Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale by Spikker, Batterham, Calear, Farrer, Christensen, Reynolds and Kerkhof, (2011) were used for data collection. The Multiple Regression was employed to test the predictive effect of personality on suicidal ideation, while a simple Linear Regression was used to test the predictive effect of academic stress on suicidal ideation at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study indicated that personality traits did not have any statistically significant predictive effect on suicidal ideation. Also, academic stress was found to have no statistically significant predictive strength on suicidal ideation. Based on these findings, the researchers recommended that further studies should focus on other variables such as social background, family relations and other demographic variables, since suicide is a psychosocial/health problem in Nigeria.