Abstract
BackgroundStressful life events are common among youth students and may induce psychological problems and even suicidal behaviors in those with poor coping skills. This study aims to assess the influence of stressful life events and coping skills on risk for suicidal behavior and to elucidate the underlying mechanism using a large sample of university students in China.Methods5972 students, randomly selected from 6 universities, completed the questionnaire survey. Logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the effect of stressful life events and coping skills on risk for suicidal behavior. Bayesian network was further adopted to probe their probabilistic relationships.ResultsOf the 5972 students, 7.64 % reported the presence of suicidal behavior (attempt or ideation) within the past one year period. Stressful life events such as strong conflicts with classmates and a failure in study exam constituted strong risk factors for suicidal behavior. The influence of coping skills varied according to the strategies adapted toward problems with a high score of approach coping skills significantly associated with a reduced risk of suicidal behavior. The Bayesian network indicated that the probability of suicidal behavior associated with specific life events was to a large extent conditional on coping skills. For instance, a stressful experience of having strong conflicts with classmates could result in a probability of suicidal behavior of 21.25 % and 15.36 % respectively, for female and male students with the score of approach coping skills under the average.ConclusionsStressful life events and deficient coping skills are strong risk factors for suicidal behavior among youth students. The results underscore the importance of prevention efforts to improve coping skills towards stressful life events.
Highlights
Stressful life events are common among youth students and may induce psychological problems and even suicidal behaviors in those with poor coping skills
Stressful life events within the past 12 months were common among these students with financial problems being most common (41.64 %), followed by rupture of a love relationship (18.05 %), a failure in study exam (17.48 %), bereavement from losing a family member (15.97 %), severe illness of a close family (13.25 %), strong conflicts with classmates (10.92 %), suffering an acute illness (7.38 %), and disciplinary punishment being least common one (1.39 %)
Regarding coping skills assessed with the Coping Response Inventory (CRI), the score of approach coping was mainly concentrated in the level 2, i.e., the average level (46.13 %)
Summary
Stressful life events are common among youth students and may induce psychological problems and even suicidal behaviors in those with poor coping skills. Some students may not be able to reasonably analyze the importance and possible consequence of a perceived event, especially those with poor coping skills. Such instances, if occurred, would place them at risk to develop negative or. It has been reported that around 10 % of college students seriously considered to die from suicide and 1 to 3 % attempted suicide within the past school year [5,6,7] Stressful life events, such as a failure in study exam, break-up of a love relationship, etc., are important contributors to suicidal behavior among the young students [2, 8,9,10]. To better understand the complexity between stressful life events, coping skills and suicidality, rigorous research is essential to elucidate possible mechanisms underlying their relationships
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