Suicide

College students who have experienced mental health issues are at a higher risk for suicide and suicide ideation than students who do not suffer from mental health issues. Approximately 1,100 college students die by suicide in the U.S. annually (Furr et al., 2001; Taliaferro & Muehlenkamp, 2015). Although there are research studies that seek to investigate the phenomena of suicide and suicide ideation in college students, there is a lack of research that addresses the mental health concerns in Black male college students. Thus, the purpose of this narrative study was to expand the understanding of the lived experiences of Black male students who have dealt with suicide ideation while enrolled in college. The study asked two research questions: (1) How do Black male students who have experienced suicide ideation while in college perceive the impact of their suicide ideation on their collegiate academic and social journeys? And (2) How do Black male college students utilize university resources (counseling centers, campus-affiliated clergy), family, and peers after their suicide ideation experience, and what is their perception of these resources? The research focused not on the actual experience of suicide ideation itself, but the perceived impact of suicide ideation on Black male college students’ academic and social journeys. The academic journey includes the impact on students’ grade point averages (GPAs), impact on attendance, and desire to complete academic assignments. The social journey focuses on participation in extracurricular activities and relationships with faculty, staff, and peers.

The contexts and circumstances surrounding filicide-suicide may provide insight into parental psychology. The current studies used two Chicago homicide databases containing incident-level information on homicides committed in Chicago during the years 1965-1994 and 1870-1930. Results provide support for the following hypotheses: (1) genetic parents relative to stepparents are more likely to commit suicide following filicide, (2) filicides of multiple victims are more likely to end in the offender's suicide than are filicides of a single victim, (3) parents are more likely to commit suicide following a filicide of an older child than a younger child, (4) older parents, relative to younger parents, are more likely to commit suicide following filicide, and (5) fathers, relative to mother, are more likely to commit suicide following filicide. Discussion situates results of the current research within existing literature on filicide-suicide, and highlights important directions for future work on the contexts and circumstances surrounding filicide-suicide.

This study explored the attitudes of emergency department nurses toward the care of the attempted suicide patient. The independent variables were the ages of nurses and their length of work experience in the emergency department. One-hundred and one surveys were collected from emergency department nurses employed in three Broward County hospitals. In general, there were no significant differences between the two study groups; however, variances did appear in several areas relating to knowledge about attempted suicide. The less experienced group and the younger group rated lower on these items. The nurses responding to this survey expressed generally favorable attitudes toward the care of the attempted suicide patient.

This dissertation focuses on using one tangible component of filicide, the method or weapon used by a parent to kill a child, as a means by which to understand parental psychology. An evolutionary psychological perspective (e.g., Buss, 2004; Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2002; Daly & Wilson, 1988; Tooby & Cosmides, 1992) can provide insight into our understanding of filicide. Questions that have not been asked by previous researchers may come to the fore by using an evolutionary perspective as a guide for investigating filicide and its surrounding circumstances and contexts. I present the results of three empirical studies using archival data on filicides recorded in Chicago, Illinois. In Study 1, I present the results of an investigation of parental psychological differences evidenced by the methods of filicide, for filicides recorded between 1965 and 1994. The key results of Study 1 are: (a) while overall (i.e., non-genetic and genetic parents combined), beating was the method of filicide used most often, the percentage of filicides committed by non-genetic parents by beating significantly exceeded the percentage of filicides committed by genetic parents; (b) in contrast, the percentage of filicides committed by non-genetic parents by asphyxiation was significantly less than the percentage of filicides committed by genetic parents. In Studies 2A and 2B, I present the results of an investigation using the 1965-1994 dataset as well as a dataset of filicides-suicides recorded between 1870 and 1930. The key results of these two studies indicate that filicide-suicide may be more likely to occur in certain contexts (e.g., multiple-victim killings) and in certain circumstances (e.g., following paternal filicide). In the final chapter, I discuss the key findings, identify limitations of the current research, and present several future directions for research.