Suicide: Knowledge and attitude among higher secondary school adolescents in Alwar, Rajasthan

Introduction: Suicide is currently the second leading cause of death among adolescents 15 to 19 years of age and is the third leading cause of death among adolescents aged 15 – 24 years in the World. Adolescent suicide has become an issue of increasing concern over the past twenty five years. Objectives: To assess the knowledge & attitude of adolescents towards suicide, to find out relationship between knowledge and attitude of adolescents and to determine the association between knowledge and attitude towards suicide and selected Socio-sample variables. Methods and Materials: A descriptive survey method was employed among 100 higher secondary adolescents in Alwar, Rajasthan. Tools were sample proforma , knowledge questionnaire and attitude scale. A Convenient area & research setting were selected and a random sampling technique i.e. lottery method was used to allocate the sample . Results: Results showed that mean knowledge score of adolescents towards suicide was 10.2 (inadequate knowledge) with SD 3.61 and mean attitude score of adolescents was 25.9 (neutral attitude) with SD 7.08 and negative correlation (r = –0.699, P < 0.001) found between knowledge and attitude. Findings also suggested that there was no significant association found between adolescents’ socio-sample variables except source of information with knowledge and adolescent’s socio-sample variables except sex, parental education, family pattern, socioeconomic status, habit/ substance use & personal experience with attitude towards suicide. Conclusion: It was concluded that adolescents tend to adopt reasonable attitude towards suicide only after they have inadequate knowledge regarding suicide.