Hopelessness, Helplessness, and Haplessness as Predictors of Suicidal Ideation

Scales to measure helplessness & hopelessness were found to have good reliability & concurrent validity & were significantly correlated with suicide ideation. A questionnaire was administered to undergraduate students enrolled in social science courses at two institutions. The sample consisted of 419 undergraduates, 316 females & 103 males. Although the associations of scores on the subscales with suicide ideation were modest, they were found for all of the subsamples studied. (8 refs.)