Past 12-month history of single and multiple suicide attempts among a national sample of school-going adolescents in Tonga

Abstract

© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd Introduction: Suicide attempt may be common among adolescents. Less is known about this in the Pacific Island country, Tonga. Therefore, this analysis estimated the frequency of suicide attempts as well as its associated factors among adolescents in Tonga. Method: Cross-sectional data of 3333 adolescents (median age = 14 years) that took part in the “2017 Tonga Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS)” were analyzed. Results: Almost one in seven students (16.5%) had attempted suicide in the past year (8.8% once and 7.7% more than once). Female sex, loneliness, having no close friends, often bullied, frequently in a physical fight, frequently truant from school, ever amphetamine use, and past-month tobacco use were associated with ≥2 suicide attempts. Multiple suicide attempts increased with an increase in psychosocial distress, health risk behaviors, and social-environmental factors. Conclusion: Almost one in seven students attempted suicide in the past year and several risk variables were found.