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Updated: Oct 21, 2025

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Social support moderates the relationship between interpersonal trauma and suicidal behaviors among college students
Danielle Marie Restrepo1, Megan Spokas1
1Department of Psychology, La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA.
Participants:
A racially diverse sample of 350 undergraduate students was utilized.
Methods:
Participants completed online, self-report questionnaires on lifetime traumatic experiences, suicidal behaviors, and perceived social support.
Results:
The experience of IPT was significantly associated with suicidal behavior (r =.29, p < .001), and social support significantly moderated this relationship, F(3, 343) = 36.85, p < .001, ΔR2 = .02, p = .008. IPT survivors with greater levels of perceived social support reported less suicidal behavior compared to IPT survivors with low levels of perceived social support.
Conclusions:
Suicide prevention efforts may be improved through the development of trauma-focused interventions devised to enhance perceptions of social support among college students experiencing IPT.
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