The interplay of stressful life events and coping skills on risk for suicidal behavior among youth students in contemporary China: a large scale cross-sectional study
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BACKGROUND: Stressful 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. METHODS: 5972 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. RESULTS: Of 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. CONCLUSIONS: Stressful 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.
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In community adolescent samples, suicide ideation is associated with general life stress, particularly in the interpersonal domain.
“This hypothesis has been broadly supported in community adolescent samples; suicide ideation is associated with general life stress, particularly in the interpersonal domain (e.g., King et al. 2001; Mackin et al. 2017; Tang et al. 2015).”
From Life stress and suicide in adolescents (2019) · cites this paper as Tang et al. 2015
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- Authors
- Tang, F., Xue, F., & Qin, P.
- Affiliations
- Shandong University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Qin, Ping
- Venue
- BMC Psychiatry
- Published
- 2015-07-31
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 182-182
- ISSN
- 1471-244X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4521344
- OpenAlex
- W1851719791
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 2.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Shandong University
- Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (2010DFA31790)
- Central China Normal University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Keywords
- suicidal behavior, life events, coping strategies, approach coping, university students, youth, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, peer conflict, school failure, sex differences, suicide prevention, Bayesian networks
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Bayes Theorem, China, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Life Change Events, Male, Surveys and Questionnaires, Risk, Risk Factors, Students, Universities, Prevalence, Young Adult, Suicidal Ideation
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