Suicide risk among university students during the pandemic

By Javier Ramos

Research in Malaga highlights the vulnerability of young university students during COVID-19, underlining the importance of family and social support

University students are a vulnerable group for the onset of mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders, and these have been associated with the emergence of  some common worldwide situations among university students such as suicidal behaviors and ideation. It is important to note that COVID-19 pandemic experienced during 2020 has been a common stressor in the general population and has had a significant impact on university students at psychological and social levels, with an increase in suicidal ideation and behavior observed in this group.

The aim of this study was to measure the prevalence of suicidal behavior among university students in Málaga, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to analyze its possible relationship with sociodemographic and academic factors, psychological distress, resilience, family and social support, and the subjective impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. To this means,  an online questionnaire was developed to collect information on the previously mentioned variables over the past 6 months, based on questions from various standardized instruments: the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), Family and Friends Scale, Self-Harm Thoughts and Behaviors Scale (EPCA), and Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (SC-SSRS). Using the 'snowball' technique, dissemination was given to all students at the University of Málaga.

There was a total of 2,212 participants, of whom 69.6% were women. The results showed that 89.6% of the sample had experienced psychological distress in the last 6 months, exhibited low resilience, meaning a low capacity to return to normalcy after experiencing a stressful life event, and a high perception of family and social support received. Regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, 97.9% indicated that some aspect of their life had been affected by the situation. The prevalence rates in the last 6 months were as follows: 30.4% for death wishes, 14.7% for suicidal ideation, 13.6% for thoughts of suicide plans, 5% for self-inflicted injuries, and 0.5% for suicide attempts.

The mediation and moderation analyses showed that psychological distress has a direct effect on the suicide risk; in other words, the greater the psychological distress, the higher the risk of suicide. On the other hand, it was found that family and social support, as well as resilience, moderate this relationship. This means that when there is a high capacity to cope with stressful life events and good perceived family and social support, both psychological distress and the risk of suicide are reduced.

To sum up, the research shows the vulnerability of university students to the onset and development of suicidal behaviors and ideation related to the experienced psychosocial distress, while acknowledging that the context of the study was the COVID-19 pandemic, which may influence the results, exacerbating them compared to other studies.

Original paper: Ramos-Martín J., Pérez-Berlanga J. M., Oliver J. & Moreno-Küstner B. (2023). Non-lethal suicidal behavior in university students of Spain during COVID-19 . Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14: 1155171. Doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1155171