The impact of paternity-maternity matching on suicide risk among college students: a response surface analysis

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of father-child and mother-child relationships on the suicide risk of college students.

A questionnaire survey was conducted on 1,215 college students using the Parent-Child Relationship Questionnaire and the Suicidal Behavior Questionnaire. 1,215 questionnaires were distributed, and after quality control, 948 were valid the Psychological Distress Questionnaire, Polynomial regression and response surface analyses were performed to analyze the data.

The study found a significant relationship between parent-child relationship patterns and suicide risk in college students. Students with high-quality relationships with both parents ("high paternity-high maternity") showed the lowest suicide risk. Conversely, those with poor relationships with both parents ("low paternity-low maternity") exhibited the highest risk. When examining discordant relationships, students with high father-child but low mother-child relationship quality showed lower suicide risk compared to those with low father-child but high mother-child relationship quality, suggesting a potentially stronger protective effect of father-child relationships in this cultural context. The study also found that psychological distress played a partial mediating role in the relationship between father-child relationship and college students' suicide risk, and a full mediating role in the relationship between mother-child relationship and college students' suicide risk.

The conclusion drawn was that similar levels of father-child and mother-child relationships significantly predicted the risk of suicide among college students.