Suicide Behavior among Junior High School Students in Philippines and Indonesia Associated with the Social Factors

Background: Suicide has become a major public health issue among adolescents. In Asian countries such as Indonesia and Philippines shares the same social norm which sees suicide as taboo. Objective: This study aimed to understand the prevalence of suicide ideation among junior high school students in Indonesia and Philippines and the social factors influencing it. Methodology: The Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) 2007 in Indonesia and Philippines were used in conducting this study. This study used two-stage cluster sampling design with a total of 5,369 junior high school students participate in a self-report questionnaire. 2 questions related to suicide ideation served as dependent variable, and 14 questions as the independent variable classified into socio-demographic, socio-environmental and psychosocial were fitted to model the binary logistic regression analysis. Results and Conclusion: Female students are more likely to have suicide behavior (AOR=1.914; 95%CI=1.432-2.557). Philippines students are more likely to have suicide ideation than Indonesian students (AOR=4.760; 95%CI=3.256-6.960). However, Indonesian students with suicidal ideation were more likely to express their ideation by making a suicide plan (53.5%) compare to the counterparts (40.6%). Psychosocial factors, gender and school grade are important factors in students’ suicide behavior. Policy strengthening in counseling in the junior high schools is needed to prevent suicide.