Citation

King KA, Price JH, Telljohann SK, Wahl J. J. Sch. Health 1999; 69(5): 202-207.

Affiliation

Health Promotion and Education Program, University of Cincinnati, OH 45221-0002, USA. keith.king@uc.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, American School Health Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10363224

Abstract

A national random sample of 228 high school health teachers completed a 45-item survey to examine their perceived self-efficacy regarding adolescent suicide. Most respondents were female, White, and held master's degrees. Most believed it was their role to recognize students at risk for suicide, believed that if they did recognize students at risk it would reduce the chances that the student would commit suicide, and believed that one of the most important things they could do would be to prevent a suicidal student from committing suicide. However, only 9% believed they could recognize a student at risk for suicide. High efficacy expectations scores were associated with working at a school that offered an inservice program on adolescent suicide, included teaching about suicide prevention in the curriculum, and had a crisis intervention team. This study suggests that teacher health education programs should spend more time on developing the skills necessary to identify students at risk. In addition, a comprehensive school suicide prevention program is strongly encouraged for all high schools.

Language: en