Effect Of Childhood Psychological Abuse On Suicidal Ideation In College Students

Objective: This study aims to investigate the effect of childhood psychological abuse on suicidal ideation and its mechanism including secure attachment in the relationship as mediators;and to investigate attachment security priming on suicidal ideation in college students with a history of psychological abuse.Methods: 2,100 college students from a university in Harbin were recruited as survey subjects to test the Childhood Psychological Abuse Scale,and 900 of them were recruited to test the Chinese Version of State Adult Attachment Measure and Self-Rating Idea of Suicide Scale.59 college students were recruited as the abused group,and 61 college students were recruited as the control group,according to the Childhood Psychological Maltreatment Scale.Experiment 1: used 2(group: abused group vs.control group)× 2(word type: suicidal ideation-unrelated words vs.suicidal ideation-related words)mixed factorial design to investigate the effect of childhood psychological abuse on suicidal ideation.Experiment 2: used 2(group: abused group vs.control group)× 2(priming method: attachment security priming vs.neutral priming)× 2(word type: suicidal ideation-unrelated words vs.suicidal ideation-related words)mixed factorial design to explore the effect of attachment security priming on suicidal ideation in college student with a history of psychological abuse.Results:(1)There was a significant positive correlation between childhood psychological abuse and suicidal ideation,a significant negative correlation between childhood psychological abuse and secure attachment,and a significant negative correlation between secure attachment and suicidal ideation.(2)Childhood psychological abuse has a significant predictive effect on suicidal ideation and its mechanism including secure attachment in the relationship as mediators.(3)In Experiment 1,the results showed that the main effect of the group was not significant(F=0.425,p>0.05).The main effect of word type was not significant(F=0.133,p>0.05).The interaction between group and word type was significant(F=6.938,p<0.05),and further simple effect showed that the reaction time of suicidal ideation-related words in the abused group was faster than that of suicidal ideation-unrelated words,there was no significant difference between the control group’s reaction time of suicidal ideation-related words and suicidal ideation-unrelated words.In experiment 2,the results showed that the main effect of the group was not significant(F=1.243,p>0.05).The main effect of primes was not significant(F=0.134,p>0.05).The main effect of word type was not significant(F=1.984,p>0.05).The interaction between word type and primes was not significant(F=0.015,p>0.05).The interaction between the group and the priming method was significant(F=6.735,p<0.05).Further analysis showed that the reaction time of the control group under the attachment security priming was faster than that under the neutral priming,and there was no significant difference between the reaction time of the abused group under the attachment security priming and that neutral priming.The interaction between group and word type was significant(F=5.736,p<0.05),and further analysis showed that the reaction time of suicidal ideation-related words in the abused group was faster than that of suicidal ideation-unrelated words.There was no significant difference in the reaction time of the control group to the suicidal ideation-related words and suicidal ideation-unrelated words.The interaction among group,priming method and word type was significant(F = 4.421,p < 0.05),and further analysis showed that under neutral priming,the reaction time of suicidal ideation-related words in the abused group was faster than that of suicidal ideation-unrelated words,there was no significant difference between the control group’s reaction time of suicidal ideation-related words and suicidal ideation-unrelated words.Under attachment security priming,there were no significant differences between the abused and control group’s reaction time of suicidal ideation-related words and suicidal ideation-unrelated words.Conclusion: Childhood psychological abuse has a significant predictive effect on suicidal ideation and its mechanism including secure attachment in the relationship as mediators.College students with a history of psychological abuse had higher suicidal ideation,and attachment security priming could reduce suicidal ideation in college students with a history of psychological abuse.