The Relationship Between Maladjustment And Suicidal Ideation Among First-year College Student

Objectives The objectives of the present study were to assess the prevalence ofsuicidal ideation in first-year college students and to understand the associationbetween suicidal ideation and maladaptive，so as to provide theoretical basis forpreventing suicidal behavior among college students.Methods1194college students at two comprehensive universities were selectedusing cluster sampling and1012students met the standard. The target population wasthe freshmen admitted in2011. Both Symptom Check List (SCL-90) andquestionnaire were administered to measure the mental health statue in the past week,and suicide ideation in the past2weeks, and adjustment and other related information.All of the investigators had been trained before. Epidata3.1and SAS9.1were usedfor date recording and analysis. Associations were evaluated using Chi-square test,univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses.Results1. Of the1034participates,182（17.98%）reported having suicidalideation in the past2weeks. The prevalence of suicidal ideation among the male andfemale students was16.51%and19.62%respectively.2. The highest score of everydimension of adjustment was the academic adjustment, and the lowest was thebehavior adjustment. There was no significant difference between female and male in total adjustment score. However， males were significantly more likely to reportbehavior adjustment, and females were significantly more likely to report emotionadjustment and somatic problems.3. The incidence of suicidal ideation increased withthe score of adjustment. Logistic analysis demonstrated that maladaptive was the riskfactor of suicidal ideation (OR=4.50,95%CI:2.83-7.16). Besides, academicadjustment, emotion adjustment, social adjustment, sleep adjustment and somaticadjustment were also the risk factors.4. After control parents’ marital status, mother’slevel of education, parents’ relationship, parental-child relationship, friends/relativessuicidal behavior, suicide attitude, social support and psychological level which weresignificantly relative to suicidal ideation in univariate analysis, the maladaptive alsosignificantly associated with suicidal ideation. Moreover, the divorce of their parents,higher mother’s education, badness parental-child relationship, support suicide andpsychological problems significantly associated with suicidal ideation in multivariateanalysis.Conclusions The academic adjustment was the most important in making asuccessful transition to college and the incidence of suicidal ideation increased withthe score of adjustment. When preventing suicide behavior more attention should bepaid to maladaptive, parents’ marital status of divorce, higher mother’s education,poor parent-child relationship, suicidal behavior among relatives/friends, suicideattitude, poor psychological condition.