Factors that Influence Non-combat Military Soldiers' Suicidal Ideation.

An,  Hyo Ja; Kwon,  Soon Cheol; Kim,  Hyeon Mi

doi:2010.19.3.299

J Korean Acad Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs > Volume 19(3); 2010 > Article

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 2010;19(3):299-306.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2010.19.3.299 Published online September 30, 2010.

Factors that Influence Non-combat Military Soldiers' Suicidal Ideation.

Hyo Ja An, Soon Cheol Kwon, Hyeon Mi Kim

¹Department of Nursing, Dongshin University, Korea.
²Department of Social Welfare, Dongshin University, Korea.
³Previous Battalion Commnder of Hwasoon in Jeonnam, Korea.
⁴Department of Nursing, Taegu Science College, Korea. hyeonmi@paran.com

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was done to investigate the factors that influence non-combat soldiers' suicidal ideation. METHODS: The participants of survey were 302 of soldiers in Y and H city. The data were collected from Aug. 5 to 8, 2008 in H city and Oct. 25 to 30, 2009 in Y city. The instruments were the SRI (Stress Response Inventory) developed by Ko, Park, & Kim (2000), SDS (Self-Rating Depression Scale), developed by Zung (1965) and SSI (Scale for Suicidal Ideation) developed by Beck (1979). The data were analyzed using SPSS 12.0. RESULTS: The mean score for the SRI, SDS and SSI were 15.71+/-19.81, 32.02+/-9.67 and 1.34+/-2.74 respectively. There were positive correlations between the SRI and SDS (r=.763), SRI and SSI (r=.583), SDS and SSI (r=.575). Stress, depression, age, and educational level accounted for 41% of the variance in suicidal ideation. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicates that soldiers' suicidal ideation is related to stress, depression, age, and educational level and that there is a need to develop programs which focus on stress and depression management.

Key Words: Military Soldier; Suicide; Stress; Depression