Attitudes towards suicidal behavior: the effect of an educational intervention on university professors

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the effect of an educational intervention on the attitudes of university professors towards suicidal behavior. Methods: Experimental study, which carried out an educational intervention with 100 university professors, divided into two groups, control and intervention, developed in three moments, pre-assessment, intervention, and post-assessment, using the Eskin’s Attitudes Towards Suicide Scale (E-ATSS). Comparisons before and after intervention in the same group were performed using the paired t-test for dependent samples and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, and for comparisons between groups the paired t-test for independent samples and the Mann-Whitney U test were used, the significance level adopted was p < 0.05. Results: There was a change in the attitude of professors in the two domains of the suicide scale such as mental illness (p<0.001) and punishment after death (p<0.001) whose attitudes were negative in the pre-assessment phase. For the control group, no changes were observed. Conclusion: The educational intervention promoted positive changes in attitudes, with a significant change evaluated at the end of the intervention in the domains: suicide as mental illness and punishment after death.