A Cross-sectional Study on Coping Styles and Suicidal Intent among Young Adult Suicide Attempters at a Tertiary Care Centre in Kerala, India

Introduction: Suicide attempts in young adults have grown exponentially across the globe in the last three decades. Suicide is one of the most common cause of death among young adults worldwide. The studies on the coping styles influencing suicidal intent among young adult suicide attempters are few from the Indian context. Young adults are of utmost importance in any nation and interventions for suicide prevention have to be undertaken at different levels. Aim: To estimate the coping styles and suicidal intent among young adult suicide attempters and to assess the various coping styles associated with the suicidal intent. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study, which was carried out at the Suicide Prevention Clinic of the Department of Psychiatry at a Tertiary Care Centre in Kerala, India over a period of one year from October 2015 to September 2016. The consecutive 160 young adult suicide attempters were interviewed. Beck’s Suicide Intent Scale was used to assess the severity of suicide attempts. The coping styles of the participants were assessed using the Ways of Coping Questionnaire-Revised (WCQ-R) Scale. Statistical significance of socio-demographic factors, suicidal intent and coping styles were assessed by Independent Student t-test and One-way Analysis of variance (ANOVA). The correlation between the severity of suicidal intent and the coping styles were assessed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results: The mean age of the participants were 21.75±2.69 years. The sample consisted of 72 (45%) males and 88 (55%) females. Out of the 160 participants, 50 (31.2%) had low suicidal intent, 71 (44.4%) had medium suicidal intent and 39 (24.4%) had high suicidal intent. The present study found that all the coping strategies except the escape avoidance and positive reappraisal are having significant association with the severity of suicidal intent with p<0.05. This study also found that seeking social support (r=-0.284, p<0.001), accepting responsibility (r=-0.344, p<0.001) and planned problem solving (r=-0.333, p<0.001) were coping styles which have a protective role in preventing suicidal behaviour by reducing the suicidal intent. Conclusion: This study had found significant correlation between the various coping styles and suicidal intent among the young adult suicide attempters in Kerala. The present study also found significant association between previous suicide attempt and co-morbid psychiatric diagnosis with the coping scores.