Mood Emot.  2019 Nov;17(3):99-105. 10.35986/me.2019.17.3.99.

Association between Social Anxiety Symptoms and Suicidal Risk in College Students

• Lee SH
• Yang HJ
• Kang NR
• Jung YE
• Park JH
• Kim MD
• Kwak YS

• KMID: 2467224
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.35986/me.2019.17.3.99

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Social anxiety and suicide are serious common problems in college students. However, there are few studies on the relationship between social anxiety symptoms and suicidal risk. Therefore, we evaluated the association between social anxiety symptoms and suicidal risk in college students.
METHODS
A total of 579 college students were recruited for a college-based cross-sectional survey in the Jeju area. The participants completed a questionnaire gathering sociodemographic information; they also completed the Korean Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS) to assess social anxiety symptoms and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) to assess depressive symptoms. To obtain information regarding suicidal risk, we administered the Korean version of the Suicide module of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.).
RESULTS
The prevalence of higher levels of social anxiety symptoms among college students was 28.0% (n=162). A higher level of social anxiety symptoms resulted in a 2.10-times higher suicidal risk after adjusting for depression in college students (95% confidence interval, 1.05-4.23; p=0.037).
CONCLUSION
Based on the results of this study, social anxiety symptoms should be managed and controlled to prevent suicidality in Korean college students.

Keyword

Social anxiety symptoms; Suicidal risk; Depression; College students

MeSH Terms

Anxiety*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression
Epidemiologic Studies
Humans
Prevalence
Suicide