Academic Stress as a Predictor of Suicide Ideation among University Students in Nairobi County, Kenya

Oji Michael Obinna, Ondieki Zachariah and Ouko George
The Catholic University of Eastern Africa
Corresponding Author: miobidan@yahoo.com

Abstract: In Kenya, a concern has been expressed on the rate at which the number of deaths by suicide is growing among the young adults in the universities and majority of these cases involve university students in Nairobi County. The main purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between the predictor variable (Academic Stress) and suicide ideation among university students in Nairobi County, Kenya. A quantitative research method was adopted using a correlational research design. The target population was 128,984 students. The sample size was 398 respondents which was arrived at using Yamane’s formula. Multi-stage sampling procedure was applied in selecting 5 universities from which the sample size of the students is derived. In the first stage, stratified sampling was used to select the universities which are 1 public university, 2 private universities managed by a religious congregation and 2 private universities not managed by religious congregation. Finally, simple random sampling technique was used in selecting students from each of the universities selected for the study. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. Using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 25), descriptive statistics was applied and data were presented in tabular form. Pearson’s product moment correlation was performed to establish the relationships between the predictor and suicide ideation among university students in Nairobi County. The results indicated that there is a moderate positive correlation between academic stress and suicide ideation. Lastly the study recommended some way of coping with suicide thoughts.