Resilience and Depressive Symptoms Mediated Pathways from Social Support to Suicidal Ideation Among Undergraduates During the COVID-19 Campus Lockdown in China

Abstract

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected people’s mental health. The direct and indirect pathways between social support and suicidal ideation in the period are still unclear. This study explores the pathways from social support to suicidal ideation through resilience and depressive symptoms among undergraduates during the COVID-19 campus lockdown.

Methods

During two weeks of the COVID-19 campus lockdown, a total of 12,945 undergraduates at a university in eastern China completed the questionnaire including sociodemographic characteristics, suicidal ideation, social support, resilience, and depressive symptoms. A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to analyze the direct and indirect pathways from social support to suicidal ideation via the mediators of resilience and depressive symptoms.

Results

Of the 12,917 undergraduates included in this study, 7.4% (n = 955) reported they sometimes had suicidal ideation, 0.8% (n = 109) reported they often had suicidal ideation, 0.9% (n = 122) reported they always had suicidal ideation, and 13.2% (n = 1704) reported they had depressive symptoms. Social support exerted significant direct (β = −0.058), indirect (β = −0.225), and total (β = −0.283) effects on suicidal ideation; 20.5% of the total effect was direct, and 79.5% was indirect. Social support predicted suicidal ideation through resilience (β = −0.038), and depressive symptoms (β = −0.087), explaining 13.4%, and 30.7% of the total effect, respectively. Social support predicted suicidal ideation through the sequential mediation of resilience and depressive symptoms (β = −0.099), explaining 35.0% of the total effect.

Conclusion

This is the first study to provide the evidence of pathways from social support to suicidal ideation through resilience and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 campus lockdown among undergraduates in China. Both direct and indirect pathways from social support to suicidal ideation were identified as intervention targets to reduce suicidal ideation.

Keywords:

• depressive symptoms
• resilience
• social support
• suicidal ideation
• COVID-19
• campus lockdown

Abbreviations

AGFI, adjusted goodness-of-fit index; CFA, Confirmatory factor analysis; CFI, comparative fit index; COVID-19, 2019 coronavirus disease; GFI, goodness of fit index; IMV, integrated motivational-volitional; LMICs, low- and middle-income countries; RMSEA, the root–mean–square error of approximation; SEM, structural equation modeling; SRMR, standardized root mean square residual; TLI, Tucker-Lewis index; MSPSS, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support; PCQ, Psychological Capital Questionnaire; PHQ-9, Patient Health Questionnaire; WHO, World Health Organization.

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to original consent, but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Ethical Approval

This study was approved by the Xuzhou Medical University Ethics Committee (ID number: XMUs 22/0406). All procedures were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all the participants for their contribution.

Disclosure

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

XH received funding from the Industry-University Collaborative Education Project of the higher education department of MOE (202101085008); XL and XH received funding from the key research and development plan for social development of Xuzhou (KC21306). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.