Search Results (8)

Background/Objectives: Suicide is among the biggest causes of death in the world. In recent years, suicide rates have increased remarkably in developing countries such as Türkiye. Therefore, there is a need to understand the psychological mechanisms underlying suicidal ideation and behaviors. Within this context, this study aimed to examine the complex relationships between psychological strain and suicide rumination. Methods: The study was conducted on 470 university students because young adults constitute the largest suicide risk group in Türkiye. Results: The findings showed that psychological strain was a significant predictor of suicide rumination. Additionally, depression was found to play a mediating role between psychological strain and suicide rumination. Furthermore, both resilient coping and perceived social support were shown to play a moderating role in the relationships among psychological strain, depression, and suicide rumination. The results confirmed the Strain Theory of Suicide in a sample from Türkiye. Conclusions: These findings are expected to contribute to psychologists, psychiatrists and public health specialists’ development of suicide prevention and intervention programs for university students. These suicide prevention and intervention efforts may focus on enhancing resilient coping and perceived social support in combating psychological strain and depression. Full article

Background: The Gini coefficient measures how much the distribution of income or consumption within an economy deviates from an equal distribution. However, there has been a paucity of research examining the association between Gini coefficients and suicide rates in the countries of the world. Objective: To prove the hypothesis that the higher the Gini coefficient, the larger the relative deprivation and the higher the suicide rate, and further to verify the effect of relative deprivation on suicidality. Methods: Suicide rates for different countries were obtained from the World Health Organization (WHO) website. The Gini coefficients for the countries were taken from the World Bank website. Correlations were performed between the suicide rates and the Gini coefficients. SPSS 21.0 was used to analyze the data. Results: Overall the suicide rates and Gini coefficients decreased slightly from 2017 to 2019. There was an overall negative association between Gini coefficients and suicide rates in the countries studied. However, a different trend was observed in lower-income countries, where higher Gini coefficients were associated with higher suicide rates. The correlation between Gini coefficients and the suicide rates of females was larger than males in low- and high-income countries. However, the correlation for males was larger than females in lower-middle- and upper-middle-income countries. Conclusions: Current data show that Gini coefficients are negatively associated with suicide rates, but there is a different trend for lower-income countries. Economic development and the strain theory of suicide can be applied to explain the effects of relative deprivation on suicidality. Full article

Background/Objective: This study aimed to validate the eight-item Suicidality Scale (SS) in Spanish in a Colombian sample to aid in suicide risk assessment, given the pressing need for accurate, accessible tools in resource-strained settings. Methods: A sample of 313 participants, drawn from both clinical and community settings, was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the SS through tests of internal consistency, item response theory (IRT), and comparisons with clinical risk evaluations. Results: The SS demonstrated strong psychometric properties, with high internal consistency (ω = 0.96) and a significant correlation with clinical risk assessments (r = 0.84). Model fit indices confirmed a unidimensional eight-item structure with low error rates, while item response analysis revealed strong item discrimination. No differential item functioning was observed by gender or psychiatric diagnosis, supporting its consistency across demographics. Items on past suicide attempts and desire to live were excluded as they did not improve scale performance. Variability within risk levels suggests that individual differences may require clinical judgment. Conclusions: The findings validate the Colombian–Spanish SS as a valuable tool for suicide risk assessment, usable in both self-report and clinician-administered formats. Its brief, culturally adapted structure supports its utility in resource-limited environments, providing an accessible option for rapid screening. While the SS effectively categorizes general risk, further longitudinal studies are recommended to enhance its applicability in guiding clinical decisions and long-term risk management. Full article

Research from Western countries, Asia, and some parts of Africa has documented that bullying victimization has ramifications for adolescents, including suicidal tendencies. Some studies have also reported that loneliness among teenagers is strongly linked to suicidal behavior. However, little is known about whether loneliness mediates bullying victimization and suicidal behavior. The present study aims to apply the general strain theory to explore the relationship between being bullied and suicidal behavior among juveniles in Ghana. The study also examines the effect of bullying victimization on loneliness. Additionally, the research evaluates the impact of loneliness on suicidal behavior. Lastly, the study explores the mediation role of loneliness on the association between peer victimization and suicidal behavior among juveniles in Ghana. Data from the 2012 Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) and a sample size of 2626 were used in this research. The results revealed that bullying victimization positively predicted loneliness, and bullying victimization and loneliness significantly predicted suicidal behavior. Finally, loneliness partially mediated the association between bullying experience and suicidal behavior. This study not only provides new evidence to support the general strain theory (GST) but also discusses the theoretical and political implications of the findings. Full article

Many studies have forewarned the profound emotional and psychosocial impact of the protracted COVID-19 pandemic. This study thus aimed to examine how individuals relate to suicide amid the COVID-19 pandemic from a global perspective via the public Twitter discourse around suicide and COVID-19. Original Twitter tweets from 1 February 2020 to 10 February 2021 were searched, with terms related to “COVID-19”, “suicide”, or “self-harm”. An unsupervised machine learning approach and topic modelling were used to identify topics from unique tweets, with each topic further grouped into themes using manually conducted thematic analysis by the study investigators. A total of 35,904 tweets related to suicide and COVID-19 were processed into 42 topics and six themes. The main themes were: (1) mixed reactions to COVID-19 public health policies and their presumed impact on suicide; (2) biopsychosocial impact of COVID-19 pandemic on suicide and self-harm; (3) comparing mortality rates of COVID-19, suicide, and other leading causes of death; (4) mental health support for individuals at risk of suicide; (5) reported cases and public reactions to news related to COVID-19, suicide, and homicide; and (6) figurative usage of the word suicide. The general public was generally concerned about governments’ responses as well as the perturbing effects on mental health, suicide, the economy, and at-risk populations. Full article

Rising rates of suicide over the past two decades have increased the need for wide-ranging suicide prevention efforts. One approach is to target high-risk groups, which requires the identification of the characteristics of these population sub-groups. This suicidology study was conducted using large-scale, secondary data to answer the question: using the research on suicide, are there variables studied at the community level that are linked to suicide and are measurable using quantitative, demographic data that are already collected and updated? Data on deaths from suicide in U.S. counties for the years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015 were analyzed using multiple regression, longitudinal regression, and cluster analysis. Results indicated that the suicide rate in a county can be predicted by measuring the financial stability of the residents, the quality of mental health in the county, and the economic opportunity in the county. The results are further analyzed using two sociological theories, Social Strain Theory and the Theory of Anomie, and two psychological theories, the Shame Model and the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide. Full article

Purpose: This study developed and examined a structural model and influencing factors of suicidal ideation by path analysis of family violence exposure, school violence exposure, anger, aggression, depression, hopelessness, and ego resilience among adolescents. Methods: A hypothetical model was constructed on the basis of general strain theory developed by Agnew, as well as a review of studies in the literature related to suicidal ideation in adolescents in terms of violence exposure. The subjects were 1150 middle school students located in P city and K province. The model included 8 concepts and 24 paths. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires from September 2 to 20, 2013, and analyzed using the IBM SPSS and AMOS 21.0 programs. Results: Family violence exposure, school violence exposure, anger, depression, hopelessness, and ego resilience showed a direct effect, while aggression showed an indirect effect on suicidal ideation in adolescents. These factors accounted for 45% of the variance of suicidal ideation in middle school students in terms of violence exposure. Conclusions: The results suggest that suicidal ideation of adolescents who are exposed to violence could be decreased by increasing ego resilience and reducing family violence exposure. It is necessary to develop an intervention strategy to prevent suicidal ideation. Full article

The present study aims to examine the relationship between psychological strain, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and depression among Chinese athletes. Participants were 774 Chinese athletes (454 men and 320 women), with a range of ages from 12 to 35 (M = 18.47, SD = 3.39). The structural equation modeling method was used to examine the multiple mediating effects of hopelessness and depression between psychological strain and suicidal ideation. As expected, a positive correlation between psychological strain, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and depression was found. Additionally, results seem to indicate that psychological strain directly and positively influenced suicidal ideation, and that hopelessness and depression played a serial mediating role in the relationship between psychological strain and suicidal ideation. To conclude, the psychological strain theory is applicable for explaining suicidal ideation in athletes. In athletes, psychological strain is sequentially associated first with a sense of hopelessness and then depression, which is in turn related to suicidal ideation. The present study makes a significant contribution to the literature because we provide a new theoretical basis and new methods for preventing mental disorder and suicidality in athletes. Full article