Role of Stress, Personality and Self Blame on Suicidal Ideation among Anambra State Prison Inmates

ABSTRACT  

The study investigated the role of , personality and self-blame on suicidal among prison inmates. Two hundred and ninety-six (296) prison inmates (males= 258, females= 38) drawn from two prison yards in Anambra State, participated in this study.

Four scales were used for collection namely; Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Big Five Inventory (BFI), Self-Blame Sub Scale (SBSS) of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CEMRQ) and Suicidal Ideation Scale (SIS).

showed that stress, self-blame and openness to experience significantly predicted suicidal ideation. Extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, age, gender and educational qualification showed no significant relationship with suicidal ideation among prison inmates.

It was suggested that clinical psychologist, health care workers/administrators, counselors and psychiatrists should assess, modify and integrate openness to experience, stress and self-blame as the risk factors for suicidal ideation among prison inmates while administering care to them for holistic treatment and adjustment. 

INTRODUCTION  

The consequences of incarceration are not only debilitating but also predisposes an inmate towards having thwarted thoughts about self and the world, how it affects their personalities, and engender self-blame within them and heighten their tendency to continuously contemplate suicide.

Suicidal ideation is the thought of ending one’s life but not taking any active efforts to do so (Krug, Dahlberg,Mercy, Zwi and Lozano 2002; Spielberg, 2009).

O’Carroll, Berman, Maris, Moscicki, Tanney & Silverman (1996) defined ideation as self-reported thoughts of engaging in suicide related behavior. 

Bagely (1975, p.201) and Beck, Kovacs and Weissman (1979, p.344) defined suicidal ideation as having thoughts, ideas and intentions about suicide and plans and wishes to commit suicide.

Suicidal ideation involves a hierarchy of feelings from the thought that ‘‘life is not worth living’’ to the more serious articulation of a thought-out plan (Kirby, Bruce, Radic, Coakley & Lawlor, 1997).

WHO (2014) identified suicidal ideation as a significant social and mental health concern? However, the term suicidal ideation is often used more generally to refer to having the intent to commit suicide, including planning on how it will be done (Zung & Klose, 2007).

The main difficulty in defining suicidal ideation lies in establishing the presence of suicidal intent. This is particularly important, as intention is a crucial link between thought and action, indicating the extent to which a person wants to die (Hjelmeland, 1997).

Although ideation is not the same as action (Leenaars, De Leo, Dieskstra, Goldney, Kelleher, Lester & Nordstrom 1997),

it has generally been subsumed under the rubric of suicidal behavior due to the variety of its conceptualizations (King, 1997; Yoder, 1999). There yet remains no agreement as to whether ideation automatically implies suicidal intent. 

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