Suicide ideation is a growing phenomenon that can be observed in stressful environments
such as those of a correctional official, and it is a cause for concern. Suicide ideation is
seen as the first step of suicidal behaviour and refers to thoughts, cognitions and overt
intent to kill oneself. The root causes for correctional officials experiencing such a severe
state of hopelessness that they feel death must be the only escape, can be ascribed to
different factors.
The objective of this research is to establish the relationship between psychological
strengths, stress and suicide ideation of employees of the Department of Correctional
Services (DCS). Three concepts of psychological strength namely locus of control, sense
of coherence and affect as independent variables, were compared, with suicide ideation as
a dependant variable. The relationship between suicide ideation and stress as an
independent variable was also established.
A cross-sectional design was used. A simple random sample (n=157) was taken from
correctional officers from a management area in the Freestate Province. The Work Locus
of Control Scale, Orientation to Life Questionnaire, Affectometer 2, and the Adult
Suicide Ideation Questionnaire were administered. In addition, the Correctional Officer
Stress Inventory was developed and administered. Principal component and factor
extraction with Oblique rotation, Cronbach alpha and inter-item correlation coefficients,
factor analysis, a discriminant analysis and a stepwise multiple regression analysis were
used to analyse the data. Results showed that positive affect and external locus of control
were associated with suicide ideation. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/174 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Botha, Christoffel Jakobus |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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