Suicidality and Relationship with Self, Others, God, and Environment

The state of mental health in South Korea is very poor, where a flourishing mental health state is rare and a struggling one is the norm. Suicide statistics in Korea are the highest among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations, with statistics of students’ happiness ranking Korea at the bottom of the world alongside third-world countries. Studies show that the old and the young, specifically, high school students, are two of the most vulnerable populations in this suicide epidemic. To contribute to the on-going conversation of research on the mental health of students in South Korea, this study examines a South Korean high school student’s relationship with themselves, with others, with God, and with their current environment in conjunction with their suicidality. An online survey was developed for high school students in South Korea. The survey was also completed by two groups of undergraduate students who either had or did not have experience in Korean high schools. The expected results from the study include that suicidality will have an inversely correlated relationship with all four of the relationship variables, that a selected high school’s academic prestige and choice of educational system will both have a significant relationship with suicidality, and that age, more specifically, a student’s grade level in high school, will have a significant positive correlation with suicidality. The study will increase our awareness and understanding of a Korean high school student’s suicidality and relationships, and may have valuable and potentially life-saving implications in how we learn and adapt