Body Uneasiness and Suicide Risk in a Non-Clinical Sample of University Students

Abstract

Attitudes and feelings towards the body may be a source of pleasure and well-being; on the other hand, bodily dissatisfaction may lead to suffering, depression and even suicide. The study population consisted of 500 university students (190 males, 310 females); mean age of participants was 21.62 (SD = 2.70). Participants were assessed by means of the Body Uneasiness Test (BUT), the Reason for Living Inventory (RFL), and the Zung Self Depression Scale (SDS). Data underline a linear relationship between uneasiness linked to body image and possible suicide risk. Such evidence suggests that body uneasiness can be a source of psychological pain and in serious cases expose the individuals to an increased suicide risk. Yet, depression was the strongest correlate of increased suicide risk.

Keywords:

• body uneasiness
• depression
• suicide

Authors thank Prof. Israel Orbach for helpful suggestions during the preparation of the manuscript. The authors also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers that gave important suggestions for revising this work.

Notes

∗∗Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed)

The Survival and Coping Beliefs scale has the most items, has the highest levels of internal consistency indications, has the most demonstrated convergent validity, and is the only scale of the RFL to have been shown to have some predictive validity with adolescents (Cole, 1989; Linehan, Goodstein, Nielsen et al., 1983)

∗Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

∗∗Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

Accepted under the previous editor, Antoon Leenars, Ph.D.