Suicide is a major public health concern worldwide. This study aimed to predict the suicidal behavior of Chinese university students by studying psychological measures such as hopelessness, orientation to happiness, meaning in life, depression, anxiety, stress, and coping styles. In November 2016, a stratified-clustered-random sampling approach was utilized to select subjects from two large public medical-related universities in Shandong province, China. This sample consisted of 2,074 undergraduate students (706 males, 1,368 females; mean age = 19.79±1.39 years). The students’ major risk factors for suicide were depression, anxiety, stress, and hopelessness, and the students’ minor risk factors included orientation to happiness and coping styles (including self-distraction, self-blame and substance use). Notably, the presence of meaning in life had a positive effect on preventing suicide and acted as a protective factor, which suggests that it is important to identify risk factors as well as protective factors relevant to the target population group in order to increase the effectiveness of counseling and suicide prevention programs.

The present study investigated whether hope and hopelessness are better conceptualized as a single construct of bipolar spectrum or two distinct constructs and whether hope can moderate the relationship between hopelessness and suicidal ideation. Hope, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation were measured in a community sample of 2106 participants through a population-based household survey. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a measurement model with separate, correlated second-order factors of hope and hopelessness provided a good fit to the data and was significantly better than that of the model collapsing hope and hopelessness into a single second-order factor. Negative binomial regression showed that hope and hopelessness interacted such that the effect of hopelessness on suicidal ideation was lower in individuals with higher hope than individuals with lower hope. Hope and hopelessness are two distinct but correlated constructs. Hope can act as a resilience factor that buffers the impact of hopelessness on suicidal ideation. Inducing hope in people may be a promising avenue for suicide prevention.

Background: A substantial increase in rates of suicide worldwide, especially among late adolescents and young adults, has been observed. It is important to identify specific risk and protective factors for suicide-related behaviors among late adolescents and young adults. Identifying specific factors across the masses, not only in the Western, but also in the Asian context, helps researchers develop empirically informed intervention methods for the management of protective and risk factors of suicide.Methods: In the current study, 2074 students (706 males), filled out the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, with subscales of Search for Meaning (MLQ-S) and Presence of Meaning (MLQ-P); the Future Disposition Inventory-24 (FDI-24), with subscales of Positive Focus (PF), Suicide Orientation (SO), and Negative Focus (NF); and the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS). These scales measure protective and risk factors that are linked to suicidal behaviors; while suicidal behaviors were measured by the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R). Mediation analyses were performed to test the models with both the MLQ-S and MLQ-P as the mediators between a) hopelessness, as measured by BHS and suicidal behaviors; and b) PF, SO, and NF, as measured by FDI-24, and suicidal behaviors.Results: We found that only MLQ-P mediated the relation between hopelessness and suicidal behaviors; while both MLQ-P and MLQ-S mediated PF, SO, and NF (as measured by FDI-24), and suicidal behaviors, respectively.Conclusion: Meaning in life, including both the presence of meaning in life and search for meaning, can be good protective factors against suicidal behaviors.

The Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), a 4-item instrument for assessing and screening suicide-related thoughts and behaviors, has been translated into several different languages. In this study, we examined the psychometric properties of the SBQ-R and a new Chinese version of the instrument (C-SBQ-R) for college student samples. We used the culture, comprehension, and translation bias (CCT) procedure to examine the responses of independent Chinese college student samples who completed the C-SBQ-R (N₁ = 298) and the SBQ-R (N₂ = 292) and a U.S. college student sample (N₃ = 320) who completed the SBQ-R. We found that the samples' C-SBQ-R and SBQ-R scale scores showed acceptable internal consistency reliability estimates, factor structures, and concurrent validity estimates. Measurement invariance was established across groups differing in (a) language but not culture, (b) culture but not language, and (c) both language and culture. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis results showed that the cutoff score of 7 was similar for both the C-SBQ-R and the SBQ-R in screening for suicide-related thoughts and behaviors. Our findings provided empirical support that the psychometric properties of the C-SBQ-R and the SBQ-R are similar; both could be used to assess the suicide-related thoughts and behaviors constructs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Digital game-based learning (DGBL) makes use of the entertaining power of digital games for educational purposes. Effectiveness assessment of DGBL programs has been underexplored and no attempt has been made to simultaneously model both important components of DGBL: learning attainment (ie, educational purposes of DGBL) and engagement of users (ie, entertaining power of DGBL) in evaluating program effectiveness.Objective: This study aimed to describe and evaluate an Internet-based DGBL program, Professor Gooley and the Flame of Mind, which promotes mental health to adolescents in a positive youth development approach. In particular, we investigated whether user engagement in the DGBL program could enhance their attainment on each of the learning constructs per DGBL module and subsequently enhance their mental health as measured by psychological well-being.Methods: Users were assessed on their attainment on each learning construct, psychological well-being, and engagement in each of the modules. One structural equation model was constructed for each DGBL module to model the effect of users' engagement and attainment on the learning construct on their psychological well-being.Results: Of the 498 secondary school students that registered and participated from the first module of the DGBL program, 192 completed all 8 modules of the program. Results from structural equation modeling suggested that a higher extent of engagement in the program activities facilitated users’ attainment on the learning constructs on most of the modules and in turn enhanced their psychological well-being after controlling for users’ initial psychological well-being and initial attainment on the constructs.Conclusions: This study provided evidence that Internet intervention for mental health, implemented with the technologies and digital innovations of DGBL, could enhance youth mental health. Structural equation modeling is a promising approach in evaluating the effectiveness of DGBL programs.

The relationship between religious orientation and suicidality can be more complex in samples of low religious rate. The present study was conducted in China, one of the least religious countries, with the purpose of exploring different aspects of religious orientation and their relationships to suicidality. Among a university sample of 2074 respondents, 122 respondents reported being religious and responded to our measures of religious orientation and suicidality. Extrinsic religious orientation, while being distinct from intrinsic religious orientation, could be subdivided into personally-oriented and socially-oriented dimensions to predict suicidality in our sample. Results from regression analysis showed that respondents with higher intrinsic religious orientation and lower personally-oriented extrinsic religious orientation are more likely to have lower suicidality. These findings support that intrinsic orientation is embodied with positive outcomes whereas extrinsic orientation is embodied with negative outcomes. It is noteworthy that socially-oriented extrinsic religious orientation did not predict suicidality in our sample, as it was speculated that the role of socially-oriented extrinsic religious orientation cannot function when there are few religious people to socialize with in the community.