Dataset Information

Belief system, meaningfulness, and psychopathology associated with suicidality among Chinese college students: a cross-sectional survey.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Research suggests that Chinese religious believers are more likely to commit suicide than those identifying as non-religious among rural young adults, contrary to findings in Western countries. However, one cannot conclude that religiosity is associated with elevated suicide risk without examining the effect of political and religious beliefs in a generally atheist country like China where political belief plays a dominant role in the belief system of young adults. The present study investigated the effects of political and religious belief on suicidality with meaningfulness and psychopathology as potential mediators in a large representative sample of Chinese college students.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1390 first-year college students randomly sampled from 10 colleges and universities in mainland China.

Results

A total of 1168 respondents (84.0%) provided complete data on all variables. Lifetime prevalence of suicidal ideation, plan, and attempt were 45.1%, 6.8%, and 1.9% respectively, with one-year suicidal ideation showing at 19.3%. Female gender was associated with elevated risk of suicidality. Political belief but not religious belief was associated with decreased suicide risk. A significant interactive effect of political belief and religious belief was found, indicating that for political believers, being religious was associated with decreased suicide risk; for non-political believers, being religious was associated with increased suicide risk. Multi-group structural equation modeling showed that meaningfulness completely mediated and psychopathology partially mediated the effect of belief system on suicidality. Gender differences were found in pathways of political belief by religious beliefs to suicidality and political belief to psychopathology. The coefficients were significant for males but not for females.

Conclusions

In less religious societies, political belief may serve as a means of integration as does religious affiliation in religious societies. Males were more likely to benefit from the protective effect of a belief system on suicidality than females.

SUBMITTER: Zhao J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3491076 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Belief system, meaningfulness, and psychopathology associated with suicidality among Chinese college students: a cross-sectional survey.

Zhao Jiubo J Yang Xueling X Xiao Rong R Zhang Xiaoyuan X Aguilera Diane D Zhao Jingbo J

BMC public health 20120817

<h4>Background</h4>Research suggests that Chinese religious believers are more likely to commit suicide than those identifying as non-religious among rural young adults, contrary to findings in Western countries. However, one cannot conclude that religiosity is associated with elevated suicide risk without examining the effect of political and religious beliefs in a generally atheist country like China where political belief plays a dominant role in the belief system of young adults. The present ...[more]

PMID: 22898096

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Project description:BackgroundSeveral past studies indicated that religious beliefs, orientation, and practice are protective of suicide. Findings from recent studies in China suggest that religiosity may contribute to increased suicidality. However, few studies have examined the associations between religious affiliation across different faiths and suicidality in China.ObjectiveThe current study examines the association between religious affiliation and suicidality among college students in six provinces in China.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study involving 11,407 college students from six universities in Ningxia, Shandong, Shanghai, Jilin, Qinghai, and Shaanxi. We collected the data between October 2017 and March 2018 using self-report questionnaires. They included self-report measures of depression, psychache, hopelessness, self-esteem, social support, and life purpose.ResultsParticipants with a Christian affiliation had 1.5 times (95% CI: 1.14, 1.99, p = 0.004) higher odds of indicating an elevated suicide risk, 3.1 times (95% CI: 1.90, 5.04, p<0.001) higher odds of indicating a previous suicide attempt, and increased overall suicidality (B = 0.105, p < 0.001) after accounting for demographic and risk/protective factors. Christians also scored the highest in depression, psychache, hopelessness, and the lowest social support, self-esteem, and purpose in life. Muslims reported decreased suicidality (B = -0.034, p = 0.031). Buddhism/Daoism yielded non-significant results in the multivariate analyses.ConclusionsChristian college students reported increased suicidality levels, perhaps due to public policies on religion. The decreased suicidality levels among Muslims may be attributed to higher perceived social support. The associations between religious affiliation and suicidality, depression, and hopelessness contrast sharply with US samples. This finding may be influenced by interactions between the religious denomination, individual, and social/political factors. This conclusion includes the possibility of anti-religious discrimination, which this paper did not investigate as a possible mediator and therefore remains a conjecture worthy of future investigation.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Sleep problems are widespread among college students around the globe, especially in China. This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of poor sleep quality and identify associated factors among college students in Jilin Province, China. METHODS:A total of 6284 participants were completely collected by stratified cluster sampling in 2016. Information on basic demographics, lifestyles, social and family support, and subjective sleep quality was collected by questionnaire. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is a self-administered questionnaire used to assess sleep for one month. RESULTS:1951 (31.0%) participants were classified into poor sleep quality group, as defined by a PSQI score?>?5. Males scored significantly higher than females on sleep duration and use of sleep medication, while females scored significantly higher than males on PSQI total and sleep disturbances. The results of the multivariate logistic regression show the following factors to be significant predictors of poor sleep quality: freshman (OR?=?1.523, 95% CI: 1.168-1.987), alcohol use (OR?=?1.634, 1.425-1.874), gambling behaviors (OR?=?1.167, 95% CI: 1.005-1.356), exercised for more than 30?min a week on less than one day (OR?=?1.234, 95% CI: 1.016-1.498), the feelings of satisfied with parental love (OR?=?1.849, 95% CI: 1.244-2.749), and harmonious/neutral relationship with classmates (OR?=?2.206, 95% CI: 1.312-3.708; OR?=?1.700, 95% CI: 1.414-2.045),. No study pressure of this academic year (OR?=?0.210, 95% CI: 0.159-0.276), no truancy in the past month (OR?=?0.510, 95% CI: 0.354-0.735), never had self-injurious behaviors (OR?=?0.413, 95% CI: 0.245-0.698), very harmonious family relationship (OR?=?0.377, 95% CI: 0.219-0.650), frequent communication with parents (OR?=?0.524, 95% CI: 0.312-0.880), the feelings of satisfied with maternal love (OR?=?0.432, 95% CI: 0.257-0.725), and frequent excursions to gymnasium (OR?=?0.770, 95% CI: 0.659-0.899) were the protective factors. CONCLUSIONS:The implication of the present study may be that college students must be made aware of the consequences of inadequate sleep quality and risk factors could be improved if students tried to change their behavior and subjective consciousness.

Project description:ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the epidemiological characteristics and HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) among HIV-positive college students.DesignA cross-sectional study.SettingFive districts of Nanjing, China.ParticipantsA total of 156 college students with newly diagnosed HIV infection between September 2015 and July 2017.Main outcome measuresSocial-demographic characteristics, mode of HIV acquisition, infection of sexually transmitted diseases, risky sexual behaviours and HIV/AIDS-related KAP were collected by a face-to-face questionnaire administered by trained interviewers.ResultsAbout 98.7% (154/156) of HIV-positive college students in our study were men, and 96.1% (148/154) of them were infected by sexual intercourse with men. More than half (52.5%, 82/156) of participants were freshmen or sophomores. Nearly 30% (44/154) of male students did not realise the severe status of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among students who are men who have sex with men (MSM). More than four-fifths of male students did not know if their male regular (83.0%, 93/112) or casual (95.9%, 94/98) sexual partners were HIV-positive, while less than half of them had high-risk perceptions towards HIV infection from male regular and occasional sexual partners. Approximately one-half and four-fifths of male students had more than two regular (54.5%, 61/112) and occasional (79.6%, 78/98) partners during lifetime, respectively. However, only 62.5% (70/112) and 66.3% (65/98) of male students used condoms consistently during sexual intercourse with regular and casual partners, respectively. Geosocial networking apps have become the most dominant way for male students to seek sexual partners.ConclusionsThis study reported a low level of HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, a high level of exposure to risky sexual behaviours and some valuable epidemiological characteristics among HIV-positive college students, which highlighted the importance of carrying out HIV/AIDS prevention education and risk warning education early and timely towards college students on campus.

Project description:BackgroundChinese youth have become more sexually active over the years, yet their behaviours of contraceptive use are influenced by socioeconomic and lifestyle factors. This study aimed to investigate the socioeconomic and lifestyle determinants of contraceptive use among Chinese college students, and to investigate quantitatively their reasons for choosing different contraceptive methods.MethodsThe study used the data from a cross-sectional survey, which was conducted in 2015 among 17,517 students from 130 colleges and professional schools in mainland China. Chi-square tests were performed to test the differences in the awareness and uses of contraceptives between male and female students. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to analyse the associations between socioeconomic and lifestyle factors and contraceptive uses.ResultsCondoms (95%), oral contraceptives (91%) and emergency contraceptives (71%) were the most commonly known contraceptive methods among the sample of Chinese youth that were surveyed. Among male participants, high monthly expenditure (OR = 1.37, 95%CI: 1.07-1.75), light alcohol consumption (OR = 1.47, 95%CI: 1.03-2.11), and high sexual knowledge (OR = 1.96, 95%CI: 1.57-2.45) were positively associated with contraceptive uses, while tobacco use (OR = 0.47, 95%CI: 0.23-0.95) showed a negative association with contraceptive uses. Among female students, suburban residency (OR = 1.38, 95%CI: 1.03-1.83), high level of parental education (OR = 1.96, 95%CI: 1.19-3.22), moderate alcohol consumption (OR = 2.66, 95%CI: 1.05-6.77), and high sexual knowledge (OR = 1.50, 95%CI: 1.18-1.91) were positively associated with contraceptive uses, while tobacco use (OR = 0.60, 95%CI: 0.36-0.99) showed a negative association.ConclusionsA series of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors were associated with contraceptive choices among Chinese college students. Targeted sexual education programs are in demand to improve the awareness and the use of contraceptives in this population.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Existing studies reporting on the levels of physical fitness among college students used relatively few fitness tests as a reflection of physical fitness, which could not comprehensively evaluate the levels of physical fitness. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate the cross-sectional relationship between body mass index (BMI) and a physical fitness index (PFI) based on six indicators of fitness in Chinese college students. METHOD:Anthropometric measurements and six measures of physical fitness (Vital capacity, 50-m sprint, sit and reach, standing long jump, 800/1000-m run, pull-up/bent-leg sit-up) were measured. BMI was calculated to classify individuals into underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obesity groups. Z-scores based on sex-specific mean and standard deviation were calculated, and the sum of z-scores for the six fitness tests was used as a PFI. Three models (a linear regression model, polynomial regression model with a second-order BMI term and a restricted cubic spline regression model) were fitted to discuss the potential relation between BMI and PFI. We compared the models using Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and R square. RESULTS:Totally, 8548 freshmen from the years 2014 to 2016 in a medical college completed the physical fitness tests. There was a decreasing trend of physical fitness index from the years 2014 to 2016 (P for trend <?0.01). More male than female students were overweight or obese (23.5% vs. 11.9%), but more female than male students were normal weight (74.7% vs. 64.8%). A restricted cubic spline regression model was superior to linear and polynomial regression model with lower AIC and higher R square. CONCLUSIONS:The relationships between BMI and PFI in college students were non-linear. Underweight, overweight and obese students had poorer performance in physical fitness index than normal weight students. Future prospective, longitudinal cohort studies to identify the causal relations and potential mechanism in a good manner are required.

Dataset Information

Belief system, meaningfulness, and psychopathology associated with suicidality among Chinese college students: a cross-sectional survey.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Belief system, meaningfulness, and psychopathology associated with suicidality among Chinese college students: a cross-sectional survey.

Similar Datasets

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