Adolescence is generally regarded as a time of developmental change in all aspects: physical,
emotional and psychological. This change is difficult and stressful for the adolescent to
comprehend and assimilate into their way of being. During these times of developmental
change and stress the manner in which the adolescent chooses to or learns to cope with the
various stressors they face can be a signifier of things to come. In other words, coping
strategies that an individual chooses to use, be they functional or maladaptive, may inform
their future. This study’s focus is the relationship between an individual’s ability to cope
and his level of suicidal ideation, and explores whether these two variables are related. In
South Africa, and throughout the world, there is a trend of a greater number of younger
people engaging in suicidal behaviour than previously and research into any and all aspects
of this phenomenon is thus valuable. Many hypotheses have been proposed and there are
many related factors that need to be considered. A quantitative approach was used to
examine the relationship between coping strategies and suicidal ideation. The Coping Across
Situations Questionnaire and the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire were administered to a
sample of adolescent males at a co-educational high school in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
The results determined that there is a significant, positive relationship between maladaptive
coping strategies and high levels of suicidal ideation, that demographic variables such as
grade and race seem to have some impact on this relationship and that further investigation is
necessary into the relationship between adaptive coping skills and low levels of suicidal
ideation. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/8046 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Barnes, Sarah Kimberly. |
| Contributors | Wassenaar, Douglas Richard. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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