Campus Location
Abilene Campus (Residential)
Date of Award
5-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Psychology
Degree Name
Master of Science
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Cherisse Y. Flanagan
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
David McAnulty
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Scott Perkins
Abstract
Many organizations and resources exist to help mitigate the factors leading to the completion of suicide. Yet, the proficient identification of risk factors and warning signs, alongside the impactful intervention by gatekeepers, has emerged as a formidable strategy in the battle against suicide. How best to train these gatekeepers to ensure their efficacy and confidence in intervention is an area of active research and was the primary purpose of the present study. The participants were a sample of 100 undergraduate students from Abilene Christian University and were separated into three training groups. Each was assigned a different suicide prevention training module developed locally by the investigator. Two of the modules represented prevailing prevention ideologies, Gatekeeper and Bystander Intervention, while the last group was a combination of both. Concept knowledge and intervention confidence were assessed both pre-and post-training by investigator-developed screeners. Analysis of performance changes between phases determined a significant main effect between pre-and post-test results. However, while the hypothesized effects of each training type on concept knowledge did show potential at p = .052, a significant main effect was not observed. Meanwhile, the magnitude of effects on intervention confidence were virtually indistinguishable between training styles. The findings suggest a possible precedent for the combination of modalities as an efficient prevention and intervention training method. Additionally, the results of the modalities investigated appear to imply that the gatekeeper ideology is sufficient as a standalone training module and requires further research.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Arruda, Michael E., "Efficacy of Suicide Prevention Trainings: An Analysis of Gatekeeper and Bystander Intervention Modalities" (2024). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 778.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/778