Hopelessness, Suicidal Risk and Perceived Source of Control among College Students of Agartala

The educational sector is becoming wider and wider day by day and it is also so in the case of Tripura. There has been a significant increase in the number of students studying science and other subjects at schools, colleges and university level too. But as the educational sphere becomes wider, different problems, specifically different psychological problems, come into the forefront. Psychology as a behavioural science is closely related with the educational field and there is a need to be always concerned and sensitive regarding the different psychological problems, especially of the student population. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the world, particularly among the student population. Studies shows that the largest number of victims are found to be in the age group of 21–30 years. In Tripura, though the literature on suicide is very less, it is also seen that there are some unrelated incidences of suicide among college students of Tripura. As the problem is significantly increasing all around the whole world, it has become necessary to survey the risk of suicide among the student population of Tripura also. A study was conducted on college students of Agartala to assess their hopelessness, suicidal risk and perceived source of control. Hopelessness is the factor which directly contributes to suicide and perceived source of control or locus of control also has an impact on the feeling of hopelessness. Data was collected from 60 (30 males and 30 females) students by using Beck's Hopelessness Scale and Rotter's Internal and External locus of control scale to assess their hopelessness, suicidal risk and their locus of control or perceived source of control. Result showed that boys and girls both posses mild level of hopelessness and internal locus of control or perceived source of control but there exists no significant difference between the two. But it is also evident from the result that 16.67% of boys and 23.33% of girls show potentialities or probability of future suicide risk.