Suicide Response Preparedness in Counseling Students: A Study of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Simulated Behavior

摘要

Counselors-in-training are likely to encounter a suicidal client even before completing their education. Student counselors not trained in these practices are at risk for not identifying and adequately managing suicide risk. This study explores and describes counseling students’ knowledge about suicide, attitudes about suicide and suicide response, and simulated suicide response behavior; and to identify to what extent counseling students’ knowledge and attitudes about suicide and suicide response relate to and predict simulated suicide response behavior. Outcomes from this study suggest that these three constructs are related to one another; however, these relationships should be interpreted with caution. Only declarative knowledge about suicide and a moderating effect of declarative knowledge and attitudes significantly predicted suicide response behavior scores.