Social Justice Identity Predicts Perceptions of Suicide Prevention: Student Veterans as Peer Supports

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Messerschmitt-Coen, Shelby
Language:	English
Published:	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK 2020
Subjects:	Counseling Education suicide prevention veterans social justice social justice identity peer support
Online Access:	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594226531856871

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spelling	ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu15942265318568712021-08-03T07:15:32Z Social Justice Identity Predicts Perceptions of Suicide Prevention: Student Veterans as Peer Supports Messerschmitt-Coen, Shelby Counseling Education suicide prevention veterans social justice social justice identity peer support Student veterans are at an increased risk of suicidality (Borsari et al., 2017; Rudd et al., 2011; Schonfeld et al., 2015). Suicide prevention efforts exist on campuses nationwide (Suicide Prevention Resource Center, n.d.); however, these programs have not been created for at-risk populations, such as student veterans, specifically. Further, student veterans use veteran-specific resources, such as veteran student organizations (Hawthorne, Bauman, & Ewing Ross, 2013), for support when they exist on their campuses (Borsari et al., 2017). Unfortunately, just half (57%) of universities have these veteran-specific resources (O’Herrin, 2011), although 96% of U.S. universities enroll student veterans (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2014). Universities can consider ways to develop or expand their suicide prevention programming to include veteran-specific resources, such as peer supports, on their campuses to provide opportunities for student veterans struggling with suicidality to receive support. Peer support programs may be appropriate to support student veterans struggling with suicidality. Veterans tend to disclose struggles with suicidality to fellow veterans more frequently than with civilians (Greden et al., 2010), which implies that a peer support program would be an effective approach to suicide prevention for this at-risk group of students. Suicide prevention requires advocacy and action to its success (JED Campus, n.d.), therefore student veterans with a strong social justice identity (e.g., self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest, commitment, supports/barriers; Miller et al., 2009) may be appropriate applicants to serve as peer supports. The purpose of this study was to identify whether social justice identity was a significant predictor of student veterans’ perceptions of suicide prevention. The hypothesis was that student veterans’ social justice identity (i.e., self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest, commitment, perceived social supports/barriers; Miller et al., 2009) is a significant predictor of students’ individual and campus perceptions toward suicide prevention (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control [PBC], intention; Aldrich et al., 2014). Student veterans from the Big Ten Academic Alliance universities were recruited through a nonexperimental survey design. A canonical correlation analysis revealed that social justice identity was a significant predictor of student veterans’ perceptions of suicide prevention. The most notable social justice identity variables were self-efficacy and perceived supports and barriers, while the most notable variables for perceptions of suicide prevention were PBC and intent. Implications for researchers, counselor educators, college counselors, and veteran-specific university resources are discussed, and the author shares suggestions for future research. 2020-11-13 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594226531856871 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594226531856871 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection	NDLTD
language	English
sources	NDLTD
topic	Counseling Education suicide prevention veterans social justice social justice identity peer support
spellingShingle	Counseling Education suicide prevention veterans social justice social justice identity peer support Messerschmitt-Coen, Shelby Social Justice Identity Predicts Perceptions of Suicide Prevention: Student Veterans as Peer Supports
author	Messerschmitt-Coen, Shelby
author_facet	Messerschmitt-Coen, Shelby
author_sort	Messerschmitt-Coen, Shelby
title	Social Justice Identity Predicts Perceptions of Suicide Prevention: Student Veterans as Peer Supports
title_short	Social Justice Identity Predicts Perceptions of Suicide Prevention: Student Veterans as Peer Supports
title_full	Social Justice Identity Predicts Perceptions of Suicide Prevention: Student Veterans as Peer Supports
title_fullStr	Social Justice Identity Predicts Perceptions of Suicide Prevention: Student Veterans as Peer Supports
title_full_unstemmed	Social Justice Identity Predicts Perceptions of Suicide Prevention: Student Veterans as Peer Supports
title_sort	social justice identity predicts perceptions of suicide prevention: student veterans as peer supports
publisher	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
publishDate	2020
url	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594226531856871
work_keys_str_mv	AT messerschmittcoenshelby socialjusticeidentitypredictsperceptionsofsuicidepreventionstudentveteransaspeersupports
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Social Justice Identity Predicts Perceptions of Suicide Prevention: Student Veterans as Peer Supports

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