Suicide prevention: Risks and strengths in Australian high schools

Download the summary sheet

Ethics approval number: S181270

The aim of this study is to better understand risk and protective factors for suicidality in adolescents from the perspective of high
school students.

Participant eligibility

  • 16 – 18 years old
  • enrolled in grades 11 or 12 at a Sunshine Coast high school

Contact the Alliance if you are unsure if you are eligible to participate.

What the project involves

The research activity will involve completing a 30-minute online survey, undertaken on a tablet or computer. This will be done in a
class setting, supervised by teachers during school hours.

All responses will be anonymous and no identifiable information will be collected.

Students will be asked questions about:

  • what they believe are the risk factors to suicide for high school students
  • what factors may protect students from developing depression and suicidality
  • whether they think Sunshine Coast high schools are doing enough in terms of mental health education for their students
  • what they think an optimal high school based mental health education program should involve.

Project results

The outcomes from this study will be used to inform a school-based mental health education intervention that will be tailored to the needs identified by students.

Details of the suicide risk factors and protective factors identified by high school students will be used to develop suicide prevention training, support and interventions as part of the Alliance for Suicide Prevention – Sunshine Coast.

Privacy and confidentiality

By participating in this project, a participant gives consent for their assessment results (called ‘data’) to be used in this project and related future projects. A consent form will be signed at the beginning of the program participation. Only non-identifiable data is used. Non-identifiable data is data that has had all personal details removed (so there is no way to link a participant to the data). Any identifiable information provided will remain confidential, and will not be disclosed without permission.

A participant will not be named in any reports or publications resulting from the research project. Any publications based on the research project will include only pooled results from all the participants, so results will not be singled out.

Informed consent

For more information refer to the Research Project Information Sheet for parents* or the Research Project Information Sheet for students*

* For PDF documents you must have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded from the Adobe Download Page.