DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS SUCIDAL IDEATION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF BASIC MEDICAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF BENIN

This study was conducted to assess the relationship between depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among undergraduate students in the school of basic medical sciences, university of benin, benin city, edo state. The study employed the correlational survey research design. After calculating the sample size of three hundred and thirty nine (339), a multi stage sampling technique was used in selecting respondents for the study. The instrument for data collection consists of two standardized instruments: beck depression inventory (bdi), suicide ideation scale; while the other parts consist of the demographic characteristics and the factors associated with depression. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics after the data has been captured into the ibm statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 24.0 software. The result shows that the respondents have low prevalence of suicide ideation and few proportion having depressive symptoms. The study also established that there is a significant relationship between depressive symptoms and suicide ideation.

KEYWORDS: Depression, Suicide Ideation, University students