Do suicide prevention campaigns work? : An examination of the theory of planned behaviour in predicting help-seeking intentions of Chinese Singaporeans

• Main Author: Lim, Josephine Yue Ying
• Other Authors: Michael David Gumert
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Social sciences::Psychology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151052
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

To date, suicide remains the top cause of death by external causes for 10 to 29-year-old Singaporeans. Chinese Singaporean participants were studied to find out if the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) would account for their help-seeking intentions. Results found that the amongst the 3 variables of the TPB model, attitudes and subjective norms significantly predicted help-seeking intentions, while perceived behavioural control did not. The effect of gender and non-stigma-related barriers were also found to have a significant effect on help- seeking intentions, hence establishing a 4-factor model. Male participants reported lower help-seeking intentions than females. Intention-behavioural relations also found that participants preferred seeking counsel from informal help-sources (e.g. friends, partners), rather than from formal sources (e.g. mental health professionals, helplines). The differences in the predictors of the 4-factor model were analysed between participants who were exposed to the Samaritans of Singapore’s Suicide Prevention Campaign 2020 and those who were not. Results found that participants in the exposed group had higher actual help-seeking behaviours from informal sources (e.g. friends and family) than those in the unexposed group, but no significant difference in their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived non- stigma-related barriers, help-seeking intentions and help-seeking behaviours from formal effect of time on the predictors of the 4- factor model, help-seeking intentions and behaviours were not present. Based on the findings in this study, future suicide prevention campaigns can utilise the 4-factor model in its planning and conduct longitudinal studies to provide a greater insight on the long-term impact of suicide prevention efforts on attitudinal and behavioural changes of Singaporeans.