ROLE OF PEER PRESSURE, FAMILY FUNCTIONING, AND ACADEMIC STRESS ON SUICIDAL TENDENCY OF STUDENTS ON CAMPUS

Abstract

Incidence of suicide on Campus has become very common in Nigerian. There had been many reports of undergraduates committing suicide on Campus. It is the objectives of this study to investigate the roles of family functioning, academic stress, and peer pressure on suicidal tendency among undergraduates. Fifty-four (54) undergraduates were sampled for the study through cluster and incidental sampling methods for the study. Three instruments were utilized in this study. The instruments were Resistance to Peer Influence Scale, Index of Family Relation Scale, Scale of Academic Stress, and Suicidal Attitude Questionnaire. A correlational design was adopted for the study. Three hypotheses were tested using Pearson Correlational Analysis. The results showed that family functioning” had non-significant and negative relationship with suicidal tendency” (P> 0.05< 0.601, r = -0.073, N = 54), indicating that effective family functioning diminishes students’ suicidal (ideation) tendency on Campus; academic stress had nonsignificant and negative relationship with suicidal tendency (P> 0.05< 0.985, r = -0.003, N = 54), indicating that academic stress does not have connection with students’ suicidal (ideation) tendency on Campus; and peer pressure had significant and positive relationship with “suicidal tendency” (P<0.001< 0.00, r = 0.533, N = 54), indicating that peer pressure is significantly connected with students’ suicidal (ideation) tendency on Campus. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that undergraduates should be assisted to develop skills and competence for coping with peer pressure on Campus.