Suicidal Preoccupation and Dysthymia in College Students

Irfani (1978) found that Iranian students who had thought about suicide obtained higher psychoticism, neuroticism, and introversion scores than those who had not thought of suicide. Mehryat, et a/. (1977) replicated the differences in psychoticism and neuroticism. The present study sought to replicate these results in a sampIe of 76 male and 98 female college students enrolled in college courses (M,, = 23.2 yr., SD = 7.0) who were asked about prior suicidal involvement and given the Eysenck Personality Test (Eysendc & Eysenck, 1968). For the group the mean scores were on psychoticism 2.4 (SD = 2.1), on neuroticism 8.6 (SD = 4.2), and on extraversion 13.1 (SD = 3.9). Overall, those students who had previously thought about suicide (a = 85) obtained higher psychoticism scores (Pearson r = 0.36, P < .001), neuroticism scores (r = 0.52, P < .001), and introversion scores (T = 0.13, $ < .05). Students who had threatened suicide in the past (n = 25) also obtained higher psychoticism and neuroticism scores (rs = 0.28 and 0.29, P < .001), but not introversion scores (r = 0.08). Students who had previously attempted suicide (n = 9) obtained higher introversion scores (r = -0.15, p < .05) but nor higher psychoticism or neuroticism scores (7s = 0.09 and O.11), but the sample size was quite small for the attempters. The present analysis then replicates the earlier ones in finding that suicidal involvement in college students is associated with psychoticism, neuroticism, and introversion.