The Relations among Attitude, Competency, and Appropriateness of Work on Student Suicide in Health Teachers

Yoo, Jae Soon; Han, Dallong; Kim, Chul Gyu

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to identify the relations among appropriateness of work, competency on student suicide and attitude toward suicide in health teachers.
METHODS
This study was a cross-sectional descriptive one. The subjects were 193 health teachers. Self-administered questionnaires were used to measure the variables of this study. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and stepwise multiple regression with SAS 9.3 software were used for the data analysis.
RESULTS
The attitude score toward suicide ranged from 1.47 to âˆ’1.03. The average score of appropriateness of work and competency related to student suicide were 2.34 and 2.81 respectively. Associated factors with competency related to student suicide among health teacher were appropriateness of work related to student suicide, two items of attitude toward suicide(suicide is an acceptable means to end an incurable illness and people who commit suicide are usually mentally ill), education level, education experience on suicide prevention and management, and the adjusted R2 of the regression model was 34.3%.
CONCLUSION
Health teachers were not tolerable to student suicide. However, they evaluated themselves as low in the appropriateness and competency to the work on student suicide, especially in screening and counselling of high risk groups. The results of this study suggest that it is necessary to develop education programs about counseling and intervention on student suicide for health teachers.