The relationship of traumatic life events and problem solving skills with suicidal behavior

The aim of this study to investigate the prevalence and the relationship of traumatic life events and problem solving skills to suicidal behavior in a group of university students. The study was conducted with 624 (64.9% women) students from Adnan Menderes University. Students who accepted participation filled in a questionnaire that contained questions about socio-demographics, suicidal behavior, traumatic experiences questionnaire and a social problem solving inventory-revised. In the results of the analyses, of the students, 25.7 % reported having thought and 9 % reported having attempted suicide. 59.5 % of the sample experienced at least one traumatic life-event. Additionally, analyses showed that inefficient problem solving and experiencing of traumatic life events were independent predictors of both suicidal thoughts and attempts. In accordance with diathesis-stress model, both suicidal thoughts and attempts were found to be most frequent among persons with inefficient problem solving skills and who were also exposed to a large amount of traumatic life events. Findings indicate that inefficient problem solving and experiencing of large amount of traumatic life events together may be predictors of both suicidal ideation and attempts. Key Words: Traumatic life-events, problem solving, suicide, suicidal ideation, suicidal attempts