Symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety as predictors of suicidal ideation among South African university students

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the 2-week prevalence of suicidal ideations and their associations to symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety among South African university students. Participants: Data were collected from 1,337 students between May and August 2013. Methods: Hierarchical regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between suicidal ideation and symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety. Results: Rates of suicidal ideation are higher among university students in South Africa than among the general population of the country and student populations in other parts of the world. Symptoms of depression and exposure to trauma predict suicidal ideation Conclusions: Findings bring into focus the high rates of suicidal ideation among a sample of university students in South African and the need for more research to investigate the psychosocial correlates of this phenomena within the cultural context of the country, especially given the correlation between suicidal ideation and other poor health outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety
• depression
• posttraumatic stress
• South Africa
• suicidal ideation
• suicide

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of South Africa and received approval from the Research Ethics Committee of Stellenbosch University.

Funding

Funding from the South African Medical Research Council was used to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.