Social Alienation and its Relationship to University Students' Representations of the Phenomenon of Suicide: A Field Study on a Sample of Students at Hassiba Ben Bouali University of Chlef

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the relationship between social alienation and university students' representations of the phenomenon of suicide among a sample of students at Hassiba Ben Bouali University of Chlef. Adopting a descriptive-correlational method, the study was applied to a purposive sample of (100) male and female students, using a social alienation scale based on Seeman's five dimensions (powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, isolation, and self-estrangement) and a scale of representations of suicide. After verifying the psychometric properties of both instruments and processing the data using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), the study found a moderate level of social alienation among the sample and a statistically significant positive correlation between social alienation and representations of suicide. Statistically significant differences attributable to gender were also detected. The study concluded with recommendations to activate university psychological counseling services and to prevent suicidal behavior.