Suicidal behaviors, social support and reasons for living among nursing students

Résumé

textbfBACKGROUND: The transition to higher education involves many changes for students. textbfOBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to characterize nursing students' suicidal behaviors, use of medication, social support and reasons for living. textbfDESIGN: A quantitative cross-sectional and correlational descriptive study was conducted at a Portuguese nursing college. textbfMETHODS: The Social Support Satisfaction Scale (Pais-Ribeiro, 1999) and the Reasons for Living Inventory (Matias and Santos, 2014) were used. textbfRESULTS: Most nursing students are women, with a mean age of 20years, and most of them have siblings. The majority of them lives outside the city of Coimbra. Approximately 5% of students showed suicidal behaviors, being more frequent among women. Around 20% of the students take medication, with a higher prevalence among women. Fourth-year students had the lowest reasons for living and satisfaction with social support scores. textbfCONCLUSIONS: Five percent of the students had a history of suicidal behaviors. Nine percent of the students take psychotropic medications. The students who take medication are 2.3578 times more likely to have suicidal behaviors. Fourth-year students had the lowest mental health scores. Third-year students were the most satisfied with social support, whereas fourthyear students were the least satisfied. First-year students had the highest reasons for living scores, whereas fourth-year students had the lowest scores. PORTUGAL EUROPE GENRE HOMME FEMME JEUNE-ADULTE ÉTUDIANT-UNIVERSITAIRE PERSONNEL-MÉDICAL FACTEUR-PROTECTION SOUTIEN-SOCIAL PSYCHOMÉTRIE INSTRUMENT: SOCIAL-SUPPORT-SATISFACTION-SCALE INSTRUMENT: REASONS-FOR-LIVING-INVENTORY