Studies assess risk of suicide by students, Asian Americans

WASHINGTON (AFP) - About 15 per cent of college students have entertained suicidal thoughts at some point, while five percent have attempted to take their life, according to a study released this week.

The web-based survey of 26,000 students at 70 colleges and universities was conducted in the spring of 2006 by the National Research Consortium of Counselling Centres in Higher Education and written by experts at the University of Texas at Austin.

The research was presented in Boston, Massachusetts this week at a convention of the American Psychological Association (APA). About six per cent of undergraduate students and four per cent of graduate students said they seriously considered suicide in the year preceding the survey.