METHODS: Data came from a large sample of 11,412 Chinese undergraduate students. A bifactor-IRT model, specifying one general strain factor and four specific strains factors, was examined for fit to the sample data. A detailed item analysis, with analysis of the differential item functioning (DIF) of the items across gender, was undertaken to evaluate the dimensionality of the PSS. The associations among the PSS scale scores with scores on the concurrent measures, assessing psychache and suicidal behaviors, were examined.
RESULTS: IRT-derived specific bifactor indices showed that the PSS was unidimensional, and thus the PSS total scores should be reported. Unidimensional subset of 5 items identified (Item 9, Item 12, Item 14, Item 16, and Item 20), using bifactor-IRT modeling and incremental validation, were selected to construct a potential short form of the PSS (PSS-SF). The PSS-SF scale scores demonstrated strong psychometric properties and associations with scores on the concurrent measures assessing relevant constructs.
LIMITATIONS: This study used cross-sectional data from a non-clinical sample of Chinese undergraduate students.
CONCLUSIONS: The PSS-SF should be considered as a unidimensional instrument with potential in enhancing our understanding and measurement of psychological strains with reduced response burden.
METHODS: Participants were recruited as part of a cohort study exploring the syndemic risks associated with HIV acquisition among young GBQ men in Singapore. We examined their levels of internalised, perceived, experienced homophobia, as well as their health behaviours and suicidal tendencies. Two separate variables were also self-reported by the participants - the age of questioning of sexual orientation and the age of acceptance of sexual orientation. We subsequently recoded a new variable, delayed acceptance of sexual orientation, by taking the difference between these two variables, regressing it as an independent and dependent variable to deduce its psychosocial correlates, as well as its association with other measured instruments of health.
RESULTS: As a dependent variable, delayed acceptance of sexual orientation is positively associated with an increase of age and internalised homophobia, while being negatively associated with reporting as being gay, compared to being bisexual or queer. As an independent variable, delayed acceptance of sexual orientation was associated with a delayed age of coming out to siblings and parents, suicide ideation, historical use of substances including smoking tobacco cigarettes and consuming marijuana, as well as reporting higher levels of experienced, internalised and perceived homophobia.
CONCLUSION: Greater levels of early intervention and efforts are required to reduce the heightened experience of minority stress resulting from communal and institutional hostilities. Areas of improvement may include community-based counselling and psychological support for GBQ men, while not forsaking greater education of the social and healthcare sectors. Most importantly, disrupting the stigma narrative of a GBQ 'lifestyle' is paramount in establishing an accepting social environment that reduces the health disparity faced by GBQ men.
METHOD: Participants (N = 75) completed a clinical interview, cognitive control tasks, and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.
RESULTS: Those with suicidal ideation or previous attempts had poorer cognitive control and cognitive emotion regulation than controls. Furthermore, those who had attempted suicide had poorer cognitive control and reported greater use of self-blame, rumination, and catastrophizing, and less use of acceptance, than those with suicidal ideation only. There was an indirect effect of cognitive control deficits on suicidality through cognitive emotion regulation (self-blame, acceptance, rumination, catastrophizing).
CONCLUSIONS: Exploring these cognitive deficits and difficulties can assist in further understanding the risk factors for suicidality and improve targeted interventions. This is of particular relevance in Iran where the need for policies and interventions targeting the prevention of suicide has been identified.
METHODS: The sample consisted of 7427 college students (56% female) who reported to be affiliated with Islam. Data on self-construal, social support, negative life-events, acceptability of suicide, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts were collected with self-administered questionnaires.
RESULTS: Acceptability of suicide and the experience of negative life-events were positively, and perceived social support was negatively associated with suicidal ideation. Interdependent self-construal was negatively related to the acceptability of suicide and positively associated with perceived social support, implying a negative indirect effect on suicidal ideation although its direct effect was positive. The number of negative life-events was the strongest positive predictor of ever attempting suicide. The interdependent self-construal moderated the association of negative life-events with suicide attempts.
LIMITATIONS: Cross-sectional and self-report nature of the study were its major limitations. Participants may have suppressed their responses about suicide because of religious and legal reasons.
CONCLUSION: Remarkable similarities across 11 country samples emerged in the linkages between cultural and interpersonal factors with suicidality. Our findings highlight the value of a nuanced approach to suicidality, that can recognize the differences in the processes associated with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, as well as the need to consider the interplay of a broad range of personal, interpersonal, and cultural influences.
PURPOSE: The objective of this study is to examine the social risk factors that drive older people to have suicidal feelings or tendencies and the extent to which these factors arise from the changes that occur in their social environment as a result of the process of modernization and industrialization.
METHODS: This study employed the phenomenological approach through qualitative data collection technique. A total of 20 informants comprising 10 males and 10 females of Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnicity were selected for the study using purposive sampling technique. In-depth interviews were conducted with the informants. Data were transcribed and subsequently analyzed thematically using the NVivo 11 software.
RESULTS: The findings revealed five conditions that led older people toward suicidal intentions. These include social and cultural changes, lack of social support, conflict in religious belief, influence of economic uncertainty and socio-economic status, and depression as a result of the changes in their social environment.
CONCLUSION: The implication of this research is that these factors affect older people directly as they struggle to adapt and respond to the major changes that occur in the social structure of the society they live in, stemming from the process of modernization and industrialization. Efforts to enact better policies and services for older people need to be addressed especially in developing countries based on assessment of their needs, weaknesses, strengths, and capabilities by incorporating elements of the worldview of the older people based on their experiences of daily lives.
OBJECTIVE: The current study examines the association between religious affiliation and suicidality among college students in six provinces in China.
METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 11,407 college students from six universities in Ningxia, Shandong, Shanghai, Jilin, Qinghai, and Shaanxi. We collected the data between October 2017 and March 2018 using self-report questionnaires. They included self-report measures of depression, psychache, hopelessness, self-esteem, social support, and life purpose.
RESULTS: Participants with a Christian affiliation had 1.5 times (95% CI: 1.14, 1.99, p = 0.004) higher odds of indicating an elevated suicide risk, 3.1 times (95% CI: 1.90, 5.04, p<0.001) higher odds of indicating a previous suicide attempt, and increased overall suicidality (B = 0.105, p < 0.001) after accounting for demographic and risk/protective factors. Christians also scored the highest in depression, psychache, hopelessness, and the lowest social support, self-esteem, and purpose in life. Muslims reported decreased suicidality (B = -0.034, p = 0.031). Buddhism/Daoism yielded non-significant results in the multivariate analyses.
CONCLUSIONS: Christian college students reported increased suicidality levels, perhaps due to public policies on religion. The decreased suicidality levels among Muslims may be attributed to higher perceived social support. The associations between religious affiliation and suicidality, depression, and hopelessness contrast sharply with US samples. This finding may be influenced by interactions between the religious denomination, individual, and social/political factors. This conclusion includes the possibility of anti-religious discrimination, which this paper did not investigate as a possible mediator and therefore remains a conjecture worthy of future investigation.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, an online questionnaire gathered data from 55,589 participants from 40 countries (64.85% females aged 35.80 ± 13.61; 34.05% males aged 34.90±13.29 and 1.10% other aged 31.64±13.15). Distress and probable depression were identified with the use of a previously developed cut-off and algorithm respectively.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics were calculated. Chi-square tests, multiple forward stepwise linear regression analyses and Factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tested relations among variables.
RESULTS: Probable depression was detected in 17.80% and distress in 16.71%. A significant percentage reported a deterioration in mental state, family dynamics and everyday lifestyle. Persons with a history of mental disorders had higher rates of current depression (31.82% vs. 13.07%). At least half of participants were accepting (at least to a moderate degree) a non-bizarre conspiracy. The highest Relative Risk (RR) to develop depression was associated with history of Bipolar disorder and self-harm/attempts (RR = 5.88). Suicidality was not increased in persons without a history of any mental disorder. Based on these results a model was developed.
CONCLUSIONS: The final model revealed multiple vulnerabilities and an interplay leading from simple anxiety to probable depression and suicidality through distress. This could be of practical utility since many of these factors are modifiable. Future research and interventions should specifically focus on them.
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of suicidal ideation and its factors in first-year Chinese university students from a vocational college in Zhejiang during the COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS: Using a cluster sampling technique, a university-wide survey was conducted of 686 first-year university students from Hangzhou in March 2020 using University Personality Inventory (UPI). UPI includes an assessment for suicidal ideation and possible risk factors. Suicidal ideation prevalence was calculated for males and females. Univariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression models were conducted, adjusting for age and sex. Analyses were carried out using the SPSS version 22.0 software.
RESULTS: The prevalence of 12-month suicidal ideation among first-year university students during March 2020 was 5.2%, and there was no significant difference between males and females (4.8% vs. 6.0%, x2 = 0.28, p = 0.597). Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified social avoidance (B = 0.78, OR = 2.17, p < 0.001) and emotional vulnerability (B = 0.71, OR = 2.02, p < 0.001) as positively associated with suicidal ideation.
CONCLUSIONS: Social avoidance and emotional vulnerabilities are unique factors associated with greater suicidal ideation among first-year university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. UPI serves as a validated tool to screen suicide risks among Chinese university students. Encouraging social engagement and improving emotional regulation skills are promising targets to reduce suicidal ideation among first-year university students.
METHODS: A search of four databases was conducted: Web of Science, PubMed, Dimensions, and Scopus for research papers dated between January 2016 and September 2021. The search keywords are 'data mining', 'machine learning' in combination with 'suicidal behaviour', 'suicide', 'suicide attempt', 'suicidal ideation', 'suicide plan' and 'self-harm'. The studies that used machine learning techniques were synthesized according to the countries of the articles, sample description, sample size, classification tasks, number of features used to develop the models, types of machine learning techniques, and evaluation of performance metrics.
RESULTS: Thirty-five empirical articles met the criteria to be included in the current review. We provide a general overview of machine learning techniques, examine the feature categories, describe methodological challenges, and suggest areas for improvement and research directions. Ensemble prediction models have been shown to be more accurate and useful than single prediction models.
CONCLUSIONS: Machine learning has great potential for improving estimates of future suicidal behaviour and monitoring changes in risk over time. Further research can address important challenges and potential opportunities that may contribute to significant advances in suicide prediction.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This review has two parts. The first part is a scoping review of the factors associated with suicidal ideation and attempt among young people. The search was conducted in Pubmed, Scopus, and PsycInfo. The second part is the development of preventive strategies according to the identified factors. Both parts will be guided by the SEM model.
RESULTS: A total of ten studies with 45,278 participants that matched the criteria are included in this review. The review found that the risk factors for suicidal ideation among young people in LMIC are being female, psychiatric illness, psychology problem, smoking, alcohol intake, victim of abuse, bullied, and food insecurity. The preventive strategies include policy, mental healthcare services, awareness programme, and coping strategies.
CONCLUSION: More epidemiological studies are needed to evaluate the risk factors of suicide that are unique in LMIC, such as help-seeking behaviour and available mental healthcare services. Suicide prevention requires concerted effort of policymakers, healthcare services, community and individual; thus, SEM framework is suitable as a guidance for suicide prevention.
METHODS: Using a whole-group sampling method, we assessed SI in 2192 (male = 834, female = 1358) medical students on three occasions over a period of one year. The Suicidal Ideation Self-Assessment Scale (SISAS) and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) were used to assess SI and CT. The growth mixture modeling (GMM) was used to classify the developmental trajectory of SI.
RESULTS: A greater number of medical students were experiencing suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The trajectory of SI among medical students was divided into two groups: a low risk, slowly rising group and a high risk, continuous group. The low risk, slowly rising group had a significant time effect (B = 1.57, p