Although the amount of interest and research on college student suicide has
increased in recent years, there remains a paucity of knowledge focused on issues of
suicide for college students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. This study
aimed to expand the limited knowledge of Asian American college student suicide using
archival data from a larger national study titled The Nature of Suicidal Crisis in College
Students. The survey was administered collaboratively online by the National Research
Consortium of Counseling Centers in Higher Education and included 70 U.S. colleges
and universities. Guided by the interpersonal-psychological theory of attempted and
completed suicide and a cultural frame salient to Asian Americans, this study employed
qualitative research methods to capture the lived experience of fifty-eight Asian
American suicidal college students. More specifically, the present investigation explored
the factors that positively and negatively influenced Asian American college students
with serious suicide ideation from progressing to behaviors with higher risk of lethality,
such as suicide attempts and completions. Findings from a culturally grounded
phenomenological analysis of participants’ narrative responses revealed protective factors
including:(a) a desire not to hurt or burden others, (b) social support, (c) fear, (d) self
reliance and assistance, and (e) insight and meaning. Factors that participants found least
helpful in resolving their suicidal crisis were (a) academics (b) lack of social support and
(c) experiences with mental health providers. The results of this study provides
information that should be of interest to mental health practitioners working with Asian
American college students as well as have the potential to contribute towards the
formulation of a theory for this specific ethnic minority group. Additionally, it is the
intention that these findings will enable design of both culturally appropriate prevention
and intervention programs. / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/ETD-UT-2010-08-1538 |
| Date | 26 October 2010 |
| Creators | Tran, Kimberly K., 1974- |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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