ATTITUDES TOWARD SUICIDE - A CROSS-CULTURAL-COMPARISON OF SINGAPOREANAND AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY-STUDENTS

The Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ), a measure of attitudes toward suicide, was administered to two samples of university students, one from Singapore (n = 100) and one from Australia (n = 82). Of the fifte en SOQ factors, ten showed statistically significant mean differences, with Singaporean students endorsing greater disagreement on the facto rs of Acceptability and Demographic aspects, and Australian students e ndorsing greater disagreement on the factors of Suicide as semiserious , Religion, Lethality, Normality, Irreversibility, Aging, Individual A spects, and Sensation seeking. A regression analysis of the SOQ factor s as related to self-reported religiosity indicated that for the Singa porean students religious attendance was related to the SOQ factors of Acceptability, Mental and Moral Illness, and Lethality, while self-re ported degree of religiosity was related to the SOQ factor of Religion . For the Australian students degree of religiosity was related to the SOQ factors of Acceptability, Mental and Moral Illness, and Religion.