Suicidal Ideation and Sense of Community in Faith Communities

An Analysis of the Longitudinal Effects of Academic Stress, Insecure Attachment, and Sense of Community on Adolescent Suicidal Ideation

This study aimed to examine the independent influences of academic stress, insecure attachment, and sense of community on suicidal ideation among adolescents. In particular, the independent influence of the sense of community on adolescent suicide was verified by controlling for other variables. For this purpose, youth data (7324 persons) from the panel data of the 4th to 6th Korean Education Longitudinal Studies of the Korea Educational Development Institute were used. Statistical analyses were performed using a generalized estimation equation (GEE). The analysis revealed that gender, academic stress, insecure attachment, and sense of community significantly influenced suicidal ideation. Female students had higher suicidal ideation than male students, and the higher the academic stress and degree of insecure attachment, the higher the suicidal ideation. In particular, the independent influence of a sense of community on suicidal ideation was significant; the higher the sense of community, the lower the suicide ideation score. The implication of this study is to comprehensively consider the factors related to adolescent suicidal ideation in various systems based on Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory. This research suggests that helping schools and communities to increase their sense of community, which is a macrosystem factor, is important in preventing adolescent suicide.