CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Few suicides or suicide attempts take place in schools. But the suicide of a student— even if it takes place off campus—will reverberate through a school, causing extreme emotional distress among students, staff, and parents; disrupting normal activities for weeks; and, in rare cases, provoking “copycat” suicides by emotionally vulnerable children. At the same time, schools represent an important opportunity for preventing these tragedies.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death in developing countries, for young people between 10 and 19 years of age. In the United States of America Every year, about 125,000 young people are treated in emergency rooms for injuries sustained during suicide attempts. And every year, about 4,000 young people take their own lives (CDC, 2004). Additional young people are treated by family doctors—or not treated at all—for self-inflicted injuries. A still larger group of young people exhibit signs that they are at-risk for suicide. Suicide among children under the age of 14 is rare. Suicide by children under the age of 9 is extremely rare (CDC, 2003b).
Many young people who attempt suicide are afflicted by depression or other mood disorders or substance abuse (which itself can be related to depression). Other emotional problems linked to suicide include conduct disorders (especially aggressive behavior), borderline personality disorder, and high levels of hopelessness (Berman, Jobes, and Silverman, 2006). Suicide among younger children is related to depression and other serious psychiatric problems as well as feelings of “expendability”— an exaggerated sense of guilt for family problems combined with low self-esteem (Pfiefer, 2000). It is important to remember that although most young people who commit suicide are affected by mental disorders, only a relatively small proportion of young people troubled by such problems try to take their own lives. In Nigeria we have recorded our own cases of suicide and even though is a tabbo in so many parts of the country, today youths see it as a way to be free from their emotional distresses and sufferings.
The role of parental guidance and counselling (G/C) services among youths cannot be overemphasized. Parents have always played a leading role in terms of child‘s development and improvement. For this reason, Parent child relationships are sine qua non to child‘s development. Okobiah and Okorodudu (2006) highlighted that Guidance and Counselling is encompassed by activities of relevant services and also processes of helping persons within and outside the school, to achieve their full potentialities in their emotional, moral, social, academic and vocational developments. Esen (1998) says that guidance and counselling is aimed primarily at assisting the receiver to discover his own hidden strengths and ultimately grow in independence and ability to take his own decisions, make choices or adjustments unaided.