Evaluation of a Suicide Awareness Curriculum for High School Students

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent PsychiatryPublished 1 November 1988

Anthony Spirito, James C. Overholser, Sally Ashworth, John P. Morgan, CAROLYN BENEDICT-DREW

DOI10.1097/00004583-198811000-00007

Source URL

Citations103

SJR quartileQ1

SJR score3.00

SNIP2.88

TL;DR

The experimental group displayed small, but significantly greater, increases in certain coping strategies and knowledge; pretest sensitization and sex differences were also found to have a substantial effect.

Abstract

Suicide awareness programs have become increasingly commonplace in high school curricula, yet controversy exists over their risks and benefits. This study was designed to assess both positive and negative outcomes of a suicide awareness program for ninth graders. Students' knowledge, attitudes, coping styles, hopelessness, and helping behaviors were assessed 10 weeks after completion of a program. A Solomon four-groups design was used to examine pretest sensitization. The experimental group displayed small, but significantly greater, increases in certain coping strategies and knowledge; pretest sensitization and sex differences were also found to have a substantial effect. Hopelessness was not found to be associated with exposure to the suicide awareness curriculum.

Keywords

PsychologyAgricultural and Biological Sciences

American Journal of PsychiatryHopelessness and eventual suicide: a 10-year prospective study of patients hospitalized with suicidal ideation

1,704 Citations1985Aaron T. Beck, Robert A. Steer +2 more

The authors intensively studied 207 patients hospitalized because of suicidal ideation, but not for recent suicide attempts, at the time of admission, finding the importance of degree of hopelessness as an indicator of long-term suicidal risk in hospitalized depressed patients.

Journal of Pediatric PsychologyDevelopment of a Brief Coping Checklist for Use with Pediatric Populations

538 Citations1988Anthony Spirito, Lori J. Stark +1 more

Journal of School HealthSexuality Education: A More Realistic View of its Effects

75 Citations1985Douglas Kirby

Why sex education programs may increase knowledge, but may not effectively change behavior, is discussed and good reasons to offer sexuality education are discussed.

Suicide and Life-Threatening BehaviorMobilizing Schools for Suicide Prevention

51 Citations1980Charlotte Ross

A program to increase the ability of resource persons available to adolescents--teachers, counselors and school nurses--to recognize signs of suicidal depression and to respond effectively to suicidal students is described.

PubMedEvaluation of a youth suicide prevention school program.

38 Citations1987Franklyn L. Nelson

Findings for the first two years of the youth suicide prevention school program indicate significant gains in understanding of youth suicide Prevention techniques for those high school students who completed a four-hour training course.

Death EducationDevelopmental trends and sex differences in adolescent attitudes toward suicide

26 Citations1984Judith M. Stillion, Eugene E. McDowell +1 more

PubMedSex-education needs and interests of high school students in a rural New York county.

12 Citations1985Naomi B. McCormick, John Folcik +1 more

There was a striking similarity among students' descriptions of sex-education interests, regardless of their gender, previous enrollment in a health course, or experience with sexual intercourse, in that the majority wanted to learn more about contraceptives and venereal disease prevention.