The differences in American and Filipino mental health professionals' perception of the seriousness of suicidal ideation, and the predictive power of religiosity, spirituality, and diversity awareness

Research has shown that suicide is a major public health concern. This study examined American and Filipino mental health professionals' perception on the seriousness of suicidal ideation. In addition, it also examined whether religiosity, spirituality and diversity awareness were good predictors for American and Filipino mental health professionals perception on the seriousness of suicidal ideation. There were a total of 83 participants, 46 Americans and 37 Filipino mental health professionals. Participants were invited to participate using Facebook and LinkedIn. Participants completed four questionnaires designed to measure mental health professional's opinion on suicide, level of religiosity, level of spirituality and diversity awareness. Independent t-test was used to analyze the differences in the perception of suicidal ideations between the two groups. Multiple regression was used to determine if religiosity, spirituality and diversity awareness can predict the perception on the seriousness of suicidal ideation of American and Filipino mental health professionals. The regression analysis was also used to test the relationship between the three predictors. Overall results found that there was a significant difference between the American and Filipino mental health professionals perception on the seriousness of suicidal ideation. Filipino mental health professionals were found to perceive suicidal ideations more seriously. Results indicated higher levels of spirituality predicts lower levels of perceived seriousness in suicidal ideations. Diversity awareness was also found to be a significant predictor for Filipino mental health professionals. Religiosity was found to have not predicted the perceptions of either American or Filipino mental health professionals on the seriousness of suicidal ideation.