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High School Health Teachers' Perceived Self‐Efficacy in Identifying Students at Risk for Suicide
Author(s) -
King Keith A.,
Price James H.,
Telljohann Susan K.,
Wahl Jeffrey
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1999.tb06386.x
Subject(s) - commit , suicide prevention , curriculum , intervention (counseling) , psychology , occupational safety and health , youth risk behavior survey , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , injury prevention , medical education , medicine , psychiatry , environmental health , pedagogy , pathology , database , computer science
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.