Student veterans are at an increased risk of suicidality (Borsari et al., 2017; Rudd et al., 2011; Schonfeld et al., 2015). Suicide prevention efforts exist on campuses nationwide (Suicide Prevention Resource Center, n.d.); however, these programs have not been created for at-risk populations, such as student veterans, specifically. Further, student veterans use veteran-specific resources, such as veteran student organizations (Hawthorne, Bauman, & Ewing Ross, 2013), for support when they exist on their campuses (Borsari et al., 2017). Unfortunately, just half (57%) of universities have these veteran-specific resources (O’Herrin, 2011), although 96% of U.S. universities enroll student veterans (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2014). Universities can consider ways to develop or expand their suicide prevention programming to include veteran-specific resources, such as peer supports, on their campuses to provide opportunities for student veterans struggling with suicidality to receive support. Peer support programs may be appropriate to support student veterans struggling with suicidality. Veterans tend to disclose struggles with suicidality to fellow veterans more frequently than with civilians (Greden et al., 2010), which implies that a peer support program would be an effective approach to suicide prevention for this at-risk group of students. Suicide prevention requires advocacy and action to its success (JED Campus, n.d.), therefore student veterans with a strong social justice identity (e.g., self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest, commitment, supports/barriers; Miller et al., 2009) may be appropriate applicants to serve as peer supports.
The purpose of this study was to identify whether social justice identity was a significant predictor of student veterans’ perceptions of suicide prevention. The hypothesis was that student veterans’ social justice identity (i.e., self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest, commitment, perceived social supports/barriers; Miller et al., 2009) is a significant predictor of students’ individual and campus perceptions toward suicide prevention (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control [PBC], intention; Aldrich et al., 2014). Student veterans from the Big Ten Academic Alliance universities were recruited through a nonexperimental survey design. A canonical correlation analysis revealed that social justice identity was a significant predictor of student veterans’ perceptions of suicide prevention. The most notable social justice identity variables were self-efficacy and perceived supports and barriers, while the most notable variables for perceptions of suicide prevention were PBC and intent. Implications for researchers, counselor educators, college counselors, and veteran-specific university resources are discussed, and the author shares suggestions for future research.