1. Mediating Effect of School Engagement on the Relationship of Support System and Suicidal Ideation  
Jolly S. Balila, Ph.D
Director, University Research Center
Adventist University of the Philippines

2. Warning Signs Have you head someone saying…
“There’s no point in going on”
“I can’t take it anymore”
“I have nothing left to live for”
“I can’t stop the pain”
“I can’t live without _______”
“My life keeps getting worse and worse”
“I might as well kill myself”
Hopelessness is a component of depression and a risk factor for suicide. People experience hopelessness when they believe that there is no chance of improvement in the future. They may have reasons why their problems cannot get better in the future or that life will continue to be unbearably painful or even worsen. Children and teens may especially have poor coping or problem-solving skills which add to their feelings of hopelessness.
People who are suicidal often talk about feelings – for example they may say things like those listed on the slide. Usually there is a theme of intense psychological pain and a lack of hope about the future in these statements.

3. Introduction
Adolescence has been identified as a period of increased risk for the onset of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death globally for youth ages 15 to 19 years old (Wasserman, Cheng, and Jiang in 2005). Third leading cause in the study of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2011.

4. For ages, 10 to 24 years around 6% of all deaths globally were attributed to suicide (Patton, 2009).
Suicidal behavior includes suicidal ideation (ideas/thoughts), plans, attempts, and ultimately death through a specific action (Bertolote & Wasserman, 2009).

5. In the Philippines, there was limited information on suicides available from national statistics (e.g., no information on the method of suicide). However, television and newspapers reports suicide every day

6. Factors associated with risk of adolescent suicidality are identified:
social integration,
perceptions of family
peer support,
childhood abuse/neglect, and peer victimization (King & Merhant, 2008)
Psychiatric
biological,
social and environmental factors related to an individual‘s life history (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2012)

7. The Need for the Study
Analysis of suicidal behavior is necessary to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the problem
The result of this stuy can be use to prevent or minimize the incidence of suicide among college students
facilitate better decisions concerning priorities for prevention of the act of any suicidal behavior.

8. This study determined:
the level of social support and student engagement,
the incidence of suicidal ideation,
the significant predictors of suicidal ideation, and
the mediating effect of student engagement on social support and suicidal ideation.

9. Methods
Research Design: Correlational. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)
Sample: 306 college students
Sampling Procedure: Stratified
Instrument: Validated survey questionnaires
Social Support (Researcher made)
Student Engagement (by Hart, Stewart & Jimerson,
2011)
Suicidal Potential (Estanislao & Cervantes, 2009)

10. Method Ethics: Use sealed envelope to assure anonymity.
Data Analysis: Descriptive statistics, bivariate, and multivariate, Structural Equation modeling

11. RESULTS

12. Level of Support System
This research found that the level of support from family, peer, and significant others were high.

13. Level of Student Engagement
The students engagement in all dimensions were high.

14. Social Support and Student Engagement Profiles

15. Suicidal Ideation Profile

16. Suicidal Ideation Profile
Further, the prevalence of suicidal potential for the past 12 months was 33.33% and 37.7.% for alcohol drinking.

17. Social Support as Predictor of Student Engagement
All the dimensions of social support were significant predictors of student engagement. The variance accounted for by the family support, peer support and support from the significant others are 23.8%, 29.2%, and 30.5%, respectively. The total variance accounted for by the three significant predictors is 55.4%.

18. Student Engagement and Suicidal Ideation
Behavioral engagement -extracurricular activities; affective engagement-liking for learning; and behavioral engagement –persistence were related to Suicidal ideation.
Further results mean that the more the students like learning, the less likely their suicidal ideation.

19. Social Support and Suicidal Ideation
The significant others is inversely related to the suicidal ideation of the college students. However, only 5% of the variance in suicidal ideation is contributed by this variable.
the significant others in this study were referring to their spiritual adviser; their second parents in which to students staying in the dormitories were the home deans and village deans; and their academic advisers

20. The Mediation
The support system does not directly influence suicidal ideation. Using Structural Equation Modelling, the hypothesized model was confirmed. The school engagement of college students fully mediates the relationship between support system and suicidal ideation.

21. Model Fit
This suggests that the model generated from Structural Equation Modeling can be used for further estimation.

22. Conclusion
The support system does not directly influence suicidal ideation. Using Structural Equation Modelling, the hypothesized model was confirmed. The school engagement of college students fully mediates the relationship between support system and suicidal ideation.

23. The support system does not directly influence suicidal ideation.
The school engagement of college students fully mediates the relationship between support system and suicidal ideation.

24. Recommendations
An intervention program that strengthens the positive influence of the family and peer support not only the significant others, should be introduced to students by university students.
Intervention and treatments should be designed and be implemented to those college students who have the potential for suicidal behavior.
The guidance department of the university should have a regular evaluation of the suicidal behavior of students for prevention and treatment of this suicidal issue.

25. 4. The university should create programs to balance the student s’ participation in extracurricular activities and a program to increase the students like for learning. In this study, behavioral engagement particularly the extracurricular activities and effort and persistence has a direct relationship with the suicidal ideation of the college students and mediated by social support particularly the significant others (boyfriend and best friend) in the students’ life.
5. Mediation and moderation studies on suicidal ideation should be conducted to explore other variables for the researchers to develop a Suicidal Behavior Prevention Model.

26. THANK YOU

27. References