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The relationship between the stress-coping levels of students studying at Mugla University Health School, and their likelihood of committing crime to help them cope more effectively with stress generators and the number of suicide attempts reduced was explored. Participants were 350 students studying to be nurses and health officers and they completed the information form developed by the researcher. The questionnaire consisted of a Personal Information Form, Stress-Coping Styles Scale (SCSS), and Suicide Probability Scale (SPS). A significant relationship was found to exist between gender, department at the school, class, education level of the mother, existence of a person among the family members with a suicidal history, place of residence in Mugla, sources of stress, level of satisfaction about the students' department, and stress-coping levels and probability of committing suicide.
Keywords: stress-coping, university students, suicide, crime.
Stress was used to mean a resistance against forces which hinder them from disturbing an object or an individual. When confronted with stress, the body undergoes a three-phase reaction. These are alarm reaction, resistance phase, and exhaustion phase (Altuntas, 2003; lutar, 2004; Ugurlu, 2007).The symptoms of stress were classified as physical, psychological, and behavioral by Artan, Ramus, and Shafer (Pehlivan, 2000). The sources of stress can be investigated under three headings: personal sources of stress; organizational sources of stress; and environmental sources of stress (Altuntas; Pehlivan, 2000; Tutar, 2004). Being able to solve problems or cope with stressful events is related to mental health and compliance. It is stated that those who have self-confidence feel that they can control events, prefer to face problems instead of avoiding them, complain less, and are less likely to commit suicide. (Durkheim, 1992; Partlak, 2003).
According to Durkheim, every event of death directly or indirectly resulting from a positive or negative action, the result of which is known to be the death of the person who died at the end of this action, is called suicide. A suicide attempt, on the other hand, is the same action but does not result in death (Durkheim, 1992; Oktik, Sezer, Bozyer, & Top, 2003).
Gender, age, education level, marital status, state of employment, psychiatric disorders, and previous suicide attempts affect the likelihood of committing suicide. Those who have previously tried to commit suicide have been...