Suicide Behavior among Junior High School Students in Philippines and Indonesia Associated with the Social Factors

Abstract

Background: Suicide has become a major public
health issue among adolescents. In Asian countries such as
Indonesia and Philippines shares the same social norm which sees
suicide as taboo.
Objective: This study aimed to understand the prevalence of
suicide ideation among junior high school students in Indonesia
and Philippines and the social factors influencing it.
Methodology: The Global School-based Student Health Survey
(GSHS) 2007 in Indonesia and Philippines were used in
conducting this study. This study used two-stage cluster sampling
design with a total of 5,369 junior high school students participate
in a self-report questionnaire. 2 questions related to suicide
ideation served as dependent variable, and 14 questions as the
independent variable classified into socio-demographic,
socio-environmental and psychosocial were fitted to model the
binary logistic regression analysis.
Results and Conclusion: Female students are more likely to have
suicide behavior (AOR=1.914; 95%CI=1.432-2.557). Philippines
students are more likely to have suicide ideation than Indonesian
students (AOR=4.760; 95%CI=3.256-6.960). However,
Indonesian students with suicidal ideation were more likely to
express their ideation by making a suicide plan (53.5%) compare
to the counterparts (40.6%). Psychosocial factors, gender and
school grade are important factors in students’ suicide behavior.
Policy strengthening in counseling in the junior high schools is
needed to prevent suicide.