STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON SUICIDE-PREDISPOSING DYNAMICS IN A SELECTED UNIVERSITY, SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

Distressingly, the South African sector of tertiary education is battered by an unswerving ill of suicidal behaviours among students enrolled in their universities. This paper explores students’ perspectives on suicide-predisposing dynamics in a rural-based university in South Africa. The study utilised an exploratory and descriptive approach to describe and explore student perceptions of suicide-predisposing factors affecting institutions of higher learning. A case study design as a specific design was employed to comprehensively navigate students’ lenses about causative suicide dynamics in rural-based universities. In-depth interviews were cross-sectionally conducted across 10 participants and thematically analysed. The Three Step Theory (3ST) was also used. The study established the following suicide-predisposing factors: acute academic pressure, parental or family neglect, stigma and discrimination based on sexual identity inclinations, self-harm on account of substance or drug abuse, and suicidal behaviour due to the digital divide. As such, these researchers advise universities, parents, and communities to strategise on fostering adequate parental support, adopting a one-student-one-laptop initiative, strengthening suicide empathic societies, and LGBTQIA+ destigmatisation campaigns.