Suicidal behaviors among Moroccan school students: prevalence and association with socio-demographic characteristics and psychoactive substances use: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Suicidal behavior is a major cause of injury and death worldwide, especially among adolescents and young adults. Few studies have tackled this issue in the Arab world. The present study investigated the prevalence and the risk factors of suicidal behaviors among Moroccan school students. METHODS: From April 2012 to November 2013, a cross-sectional study was conducted in the North-Centre region of Morocco among students in public secondary schools selected using stratified cluster random sampling. The data were collected via anonymous self-administered questionnaires. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used in its Moroccan Colloquial Arabic version to assess suicidality according to the DSM-IV criteria. RESULTS: A total of 3020 students (53 % boys) aged 11–23 years (average age = 16 ± 2.1 years) were included in the study. The prevalence of suicide ideation, suicide planning and suicide attempts during the last month were 15.7, 6.3, and 6.5 % respectively. Univariate analyses demonstrated that suicidal behaviors followed different epidemiological patterns. According to the multivariate analyses, the risk factors for all suicidal behaviors among Moroccan school students were the female gender, middle school level, urban locations, low family income, parents’ divorce, tobacco consumption and psychoactive substances (alcohol and cannabis) use. CONCLUSIONS: The intervention of preventive programs has become an emergency to overcome the issue of suicidality in Morocco. Further researches on adolescents’ suicidal behaviors are suggested to update temporal data and assess the effectiveness of potential interventions. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-015-0680-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.