Unravelling associations of personality traits, emotion regulation strategies, coping styles, and psychopathology with suicide risk in university students: A network perspective

Background: University students often face with adjustments to novel social contexts. This process, especially in light of maladaptive personality traits, coping styles, and emotion regulation strategies might lead to the emergence or worsening of mental disorders. Consequently, university students are likely to develop suicide-related outcomes. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to assess the association of personality traits, emotion regulation strategies, coping styles, and psychopathology with suicide risk in university students using a network analysis. Methods: A total of 1653 university students (aged 21.6 ± 3.0 years, 71.8% females) were enrolled and assessed using self-reports administered in the internet-based survey. Results: There were significant and positive edges of the node representing suicide risk with almost all psychopathological symptoms (except for psychotic-like experiences), avoidance coping, impulsiveness, and venturesomeness. Also, there were significant and negative connections of the node for suicide risk with problem-focused coping, cognitive reappraisal, and empathy. Among all significant connections with suicide risk, the strongest one was found for dissociation symptoms. Edge weight for this connection was significantly higher compared to all other connections with suicide risk. However, the greatest bridge centrality was obtained for avoidance coping. It was significantly higher compared to bridge centralities of all other nodes in the network. Conclusions: The most important findings from the present study indicate that enhancing adaptive coping strategies should serve as the target for interventions that aim to reduce suicide risk among university students. Also, the recognition and treatment of dissociation symptoms should be the priority of potential interventions.