Searching for psychological predictors of suicidal ideation in university students

Abstract

The present study aims to identify psychological predictors of suicidal ideation in university students. We collected a sample of 366 participants, representing a population of 7102 students from a university in northern Portugal (95% CI). Both in the whole sample and in the intra-gender analysis, students with suicidal ideation revealed higher levels of depressive symptoms, loneliness, social anxiety and fears of abandonment, and lower levels of comfort with intimacy and trust in others. Loneliness and depression are significant predictors of suicidal ideation, with an odds ratio of 1.095 and 1.108, respectively. The results were consistent with those found in the literature, and call for more research and implementation of intervention protocols in university populations.