A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University for the Partial Fulfilment Sub-Specialty Certificate in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
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Date
2025-05-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: suicide in adolescent age group is a growing global health challenge. Suicide behaviors serve as significant predictors of completed suicide and occur at a higher rate compared to suicide death. Understanding how common suicidal behaviors are and the factors linked to them is crucial for designing programs aimed at lowering the risk of completed suicide within this specific population. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of suicidal behaviors and related factors among high school adolescents in Arada sub city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Method: A quantitative cross-sectional study design was used. Random sampling method was employed to choose the high schools from high schools found in the sub-city and to select sections from every grade level. Data were gathered through self-administered structured questionnaires. Data entry and analysis were performed using SPSS software. Results: Lifetime prevalence of suicidal thought was 26.9%, suicidal plan was 18.8% and suicidal attempt was 17.0% in high school adolescents. The last 12 months prevalence of suicidal thought, plan and attempt were 13.5%, 8.7% and 7.2% respectively. Age (AOR=2.82), gender (AOR=2.80), anxiety (AOR=3.59) and social support (AOR=0.26) had significant association with suicidal thought. Gender (AOR = 2.80), anxiety (AOR = 3.68), school absenteeism (AOR = 2.20), social support (AOR = 0.35) and family relative wealth (AOR = 11.77) were significantly associated with suicide attempt among the study participants. Conclusions and Recommendation: Suicidal behaviors were prevalent among high school adolescents in Arad sub-city of Addis Ababa, posing a major public health challenge. Female gender, anxiety, school absenteeism, and poor social support increased the likelihood of suicidal behaviors. Addressing this requires understanding these factors to develop targeted prevention and intervention strategies, emphasizing mental health education in schools.
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Suicidal behaviors, adolescents, high school, Arad sub-city.