Beyond the Crisis: The Role of Positive Psychological Capital in the Association with Suicidal Ideation Among College...

Crisis life events are important risk factors for suicidal ideation among college students. This study aimed to examine the mechanisms underlying the association between crisis life events and suicidal ideation, with a particular focus on the multiple chain mediating effects of social support, positive psychological capital, and depression.

A cross-sectional convenience sampling design was used. Data were collected from 1296 college students across nine universities in China via an online questionnaire (mean age = 19.46 ± 3.05 years). Participants completed the self-developed Questionnaire on Crisis Life Events for College Students, the Self-Rating Idea of Suicide Scale (SIOSS), the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the Positive Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PPQ). A manifest variable path analysis model was constructed in Mplus 8.3, and the bias-corrected bootstrap method with 5000 resamples was used to estimate 95% confidence intervals for the indirect effects.

(1) Crisis life events were significantly and positively associated with suicidal ideation among college students (β = 0.178, p < 0.001). (2) Social support, positive psychological capital, and depression showed multiple chain mediating roles in the association between crisis life events and suicidal ideation, with a significant total indirect effect (β = 0.196, p < 0.001). (3) Before social support was included in the model, the mediating roles of resilience, hope, and optimism among the dimensions of positive psychological capital were significant, with resilience showing the largest effect size (single mediation: β = 0.068, p < 0.001; chain mediation: β = 0.029, p < 0.001); after social support was included, the mediating effect of self-efficacy became significant (β = 0.012, p < 0.001), and the mediating effect of optimism was substantially strengthened, with its significance level increasing from p < 0.05 to p < 0.001.

Crisis life events positively predicted suicidal ideation among college students. Depression, social support, and positive psychological capital played parallel mediating roles in the association between crisis life events and suicidal ideation among college students, and jointly formed a chain mediation pathway. Among the dimensions of positive psychological capital, resilience, hope, and optimism mediated the association between crisis life events and suicidal ideation among college students, with resilience showing the most prominent role. In addition, after social support was included in the model, the mediating role of self-efficacy became significant, and the significance of the mediating effect of optimism was further enhanced. These findings suggest that universities should integrate the construction of social support systems with psychological capital training when developing prevention strategies for suicidal ideation among college students.