Adolescent suicide prevention: Gender differences in students' perceptions of the acceptability and intrusiveness of school-based screening programs

Suicidal behavior is a significant problem among adolescents in the United States. Three types of school-based suicide prevention programs have been proposed to address this problem including curriculum programs, staff in-service training, and school-wide screening. The relative acceptability of these three programs among older adolescents was examined. The sample included 662 freshmen (496 females, 161 males) enrolled in a large private university. Respondents rated the degree to which they considered adolescent suicide to be a significant problem, and the acceptability, intrusiveness, and time demands of the three suicide prevention programs. A majority (85.9%) of the sample agreed that adolescent suicide was a significant problem. Significant gender differences were observed in relation to the acceptability ratings of the school-based suicide programs. Female participants rated the curriculum-based program and staff in-service training as more acceptable than male participants. In addition, female participants rated the curriculum-based program as significantly less intrusive and less time demanding than male participants. Implications of these findings for implementation of suicide prevention programs and for future research are discussed.