GENDER AND HISTORY OF SUICIDALITY - ARE THESE FACTORS RELATED TO US COLLEGE-STUDENTS CURRENT SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, FEELINGS, AND ACTIONS

Gender and history of suicidality (HS vs. NoHS) were related to curren t symptoms of depression, reasons for living, and reports of self-dest ructive and life-threatening behavior in a college student sample. Ove rall, college men reported engaging in more life-threatening and poten tially suicidal behavior than college women on the Life Attitudes Sche dule (LAS). No gender effects were obtained on the symptoms of depress ion and reasons for living measures. Results suggest that the LAS may be a particularly effective way to identify college students at risk f or self-destructive and suicidal behavior. As expected, HS individuals were more depressed, had fewer reasons for living, and reported engag ing in more current suicidal and life-threatening behavior than NoHS p articipants. However, gender and history of suicidality were found to interact. NoHS women reported avoiding a variety of injury-producing a nd health-diminishing behaviors that were common for all other groups of college students. Meanwhile, HS women endorsed fewer current reason s for living than did NoHS women, NoHS men, and NoHS men. These findin gs were interpreted both with regard to cultural and gender-specific e xpectations for the expression of self-destructive, suicidal, and life -threatening behavior. Implications for the prevention of college wome n's and men's suicidal behavior were also noted.