Relations Between Proximal and Distal Predictors of Suicide Risk among College Students

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Public Health
• Sociology

Background:

• Rising rates of suicide and mental health issues in young adults.
• Emerging adulthood as a critical transition period.
• Need to understand factors contributing to suicide attempts.

Purpose of the Study:

• Examine distal and mediating proximal factors of suicide attempts in emerging adults.
• Decompose relationships between past-year suicide attempt and risk factors.
• Inform suicide prevention strategies.

Main Methods:

• Bivariate, multivariate, and mediation regression analyses.
• Utilized five years of data from a large national student survey.
• Controlled for personal and sociodemographic characteristics.

Main Results:

• 1.2% of 372,000 college students reported a past-year suicide attempt.
• Proximal factors like physical abuse history (73.9%) and childhood financial distress (40.2%) significantly mediated distal factors.
• Recent depression and sexual assault victimization explained over 40% of indirect associations.

Conclusions:

• Understanding dynamic relationships between distal and proximal risk factors is crucial.
• Informs integrated clinical and campus suicide prevention strategies.
• Aims to mitigate severe consequences of mental health disorders, substance misuse, and life stressors.