This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: As concerns about farmer mental health continue to grow, agricultural researchers are compiling more data on the complex nature of suicide awareness among those who may be able to offer help. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have shown that American workers in the farming, fishing and forestry industries have some of the highest suicide rates of any professional group.
However, not much has been done to determine the levels of suicide warning awareness among school-based agricultural educators. "The school-based ag teachers are typically embedded into the social fabric of the communities in which they live and work, so we wanted to see what they knew," said Donald Johnson, a university professor in the department of agricultural education, communications and technology for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. "Their daily contact with agricultural producers and students gives them a unique perspective on farm stressors that can have negative effects on mental well-being." Prior research, Johnson said, had focused mainly on farmers and farm families.
To gauge ag teachers' farm stress and suicide warning awareness, Johnson joined a team of researchers from across the South and Puerto Rico in a study that surveyed 793 school-based agricultural educators in 13 Southern states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Their work was published in the Journal of Southern Agricultural Education under the title "Suicide and School-based Agricultural Education in the Southern Region—A Multistate Exploratory Study." Despite the grim nature of the study, the results paint a largely encouraging picture, Johnson said, because they showed that school-based agricultural educators generally recognized most suicide warning signs and farm stressors. Many of the teachers surveyed also possess a strong awareness of issues affecting students and agricultural families, the study noted.
The researchers measured awareness of farm stressors using a list of common financial, workload, health and social challenges facing farmers. The study categorized teachers' communities as rural, suburban or urban, but did not specify how those community classifications were determined. An unexpected finding was that school-based ag teachers described as "urban" were among the groups who were more likely to recognize farm stressors than teachers from "rural" communities.
The finding challenges assumptions that educators working closest to farming communities would be more attuned to signs of farm stressors. While there is no definitive explanation for the apparent discrepancy in logic, there are clues in previous research cited in the study. "Suicide in rural areas: An updated review of the literature," published in 2014, identified several possible contributors to rural suicide risk, including "the sociocultural sanctioned pressure to perform as stoic, steadfast and dependable providers." Although it goes beyond the study's findings, Johnson said the implication is that people immersed in farming communities may become accustomed to stressors that outsiders recognize more readily.
Survey results also showed a significant relationship between awareness of farm stressors and awareness of suicide warning signs. Teachers who were more aware of one were more likely to recognize the other. Also, teachers who were exposed more to suicide in personal settings and more aware of warning signs were also more aware of farm stressors, the study concluded.
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