Gender and History of Suicidality: Are These Factors Related to U.S. College Students’ Current Suicidal Thoughts, Feelings, and Actions?

Abstract

Gender and history of suicidality (HS vs. NoHS) were related to current symptoms of depression, reasons for living, and reports of self‐destructive and life‐threatening behavior in a college student sample. Overall, college men reported engaging in more life‐threatening and potentially suicidal behavior than college women on the Life Attitudes Schedule (LAS). No gender effects were obtained on the symptoms of depression and reasons for living measures. Results suggest that the LAS may be a particularly effective way to identify college students at risk for self‐destructive and suicidal behavior. As expected, HS individuals were more depressed, had fewer reasons for living, and reported engaging in more current suicidal and life‐threatening behavior than NoHS participants. However, gender and history of suicidality were found to interact. NoHS women reported avoiding a variety of injury‐producing and health‐diminishing behaviors that were common for all other groups of college students. Meanwhile, HS women endorsed fewer current reasons for living than did NoHS women, NoHS men, and NoHS men. These findings were interpreted both with regard to cultural and gender‐specific expectations for the expression of self‐destructive, suicidal, and life‐threatening behavior. Implications for the prevention of college women's and men's suicidal behavior were also noted.