Who Benefits Most From Suicide Prevention Workshops in Schools?

ABSTRACT

To improve suicide prevention in schools, we implemented workshops for students in grades 8-10. The students (N=200) were randomly assigned to either a training or a control group and were surveyed regarding their help-seeking and help-giving behavior and their depressive symptoms both before and after the training as well as 3 months later. The results indicate that especially those students assessed to be at a higher risk for suicide benefitted most from the training. Their number of depressive symptoms decreased significantly and remained stable. Participants undergoing the training tended to be more likely to ask a teacher for help and to initiate more crisis counseling interactions with peers in need than did untrained controls;these differences, however, were not statistically significant. Though hampered by high dropout rates because of the Covid-19 pandemic and a restrictive prescreening process. these results indicate the positive effects of an extracurricular suicide prevention program on students' well-being and behavior.