Adolescent suicide prevention: Gender differences in students' perceptions of the acceptability and intrusiveness of school-based screening programs

Suicidal behavior is a significant problem among adolescents in the United States. Three types of school-based suicide prevention programs have been proposed to address this problem including curriculum programs, staff in-service training, and school-wide screening. The relative acceptability of these three programs among older adolescents was examined. The sample included 662 freshmen (496 females, 161 males) enrolled in a large private university. Respondents rated the degree to which they considered adolescent suicide to be a significant problem, and the acceptability, intrusiveness, and time demands of the three suicide prevention programs. A majority (85.9%) of the sample agreed that adolescent suicide was a significant problem. Significant gender differences were observed in relation to the acceptability ratings of the school-based suicide programs. Female participants rated the curriculum-based program and staff in-service training as more acceptable than mate participants. In addition, female participants rated the curriculum-based program assignificantly less intrusive and less time demanding than male participants. Implications of these findings for implementation of suicide prevention programs and for future research are discussed. (c) 2006 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.