(PS9-29) Resilience, Experience with Therapy, and Suicide Attempts Among College Students

Abstract Text:

Introduction: Most of the research on suicide in college populations examine risk factors such as hopelessness and depression (Illinois Department of Health, 2024). While research on protective factors has expanded, there are still gaps in understanding their relationship with suicide. Resilience, a person’s positive adaptions when faced with adversity or difficult life challenges, has been identified as one protective factor for suicide attempts (Bakken et al., 2024; Wang et al., 2022). However, individuals seem to have different levels of innate resilience, and therapy has been shown to increase resilience by helping individuals develop coping mechanisms, manage stress, and improve their ability to adapt to adversity (Helmreich et al., 2017). The current study sought to examine how therapy may moderate the relationship between resilience and recent suicide attempts (within past two years) in college students.
Methods and Materials: Data were collected in Fall 2024 from 710 college-aged participants via Qualtrics. The majority (74.3%) identified as female, heterosexual (67.8%), and (75.4%) White. Participants answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to “are you currently in therapy/seeing a counselor?”; 26.8% responded affirmatively. Participants also responded to items about suicide ideation and attempt history. The item used to identify which participants has suicide attempt history used the following wording, “Have you ever (in your lifetime) seriously thought about, or attempted to kill yourself (suicide)?” In determining a history of a suicide attempt within the last two years, participants answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to “Have you made a suicide attempt in the past two years?” There were 90 participants with suicide attempts in the past two years (12.7%). Resilience was measured with the 12-item Brief Resilience Scale (BRS).

Results: The PROCESS Macro for SPSS was used to test current therapy (yes/no) as the moderator in the relationship between resilience and a suicide attempt within the last two years (yes/no). The overall model was significant χ² (3) = 20.68, p < .001, Nagelkerke R² = .054. Results showed that resilience was significantly associated with suicide attempts, OR = .53, p = .001, indicating that higher resilience scores corresponded to lower likelihood of suicide attempts. Results also showed that current therapy was not significantly associated with suicide attempts, OR = .80, p = .799. The interaction between current therapy and resilience was also not significant, indicating that therapy was not a moderator.

Conclusion: Results indicated that current therapy participation was not associated with suicide attempts made in the last two years, but resilience was. These results align with previous research showing resilience as a protective factor for suicide among university students (Shenouda & Basha, 2014). While the relationship between resilience and suicide attempts did not depend on current therapy participation, results indicate that boosting resilience in this age group may be beneficial.