3 - (SYM 146) Resilience and Wellbeing in First-year University Students with Histories of Suicidal Ideation

Approximately 1 in 3 first-year college students have a lifetime history of suicidal ideation (SI), and 1 in 6 have experienced SI in the past year (Mortier et al., 2018). Postsecondary institutions are increasingly viewed as responsible for protecting and responding to students’ mental health needs. A key question, then, is how campuses can support students who enter post-secondary with prior experiences of SI. We examined aspects of students’ wellbeing that reduced SI recurrence, and college-specific resilience factors that contributed to these domains of wellbeing.

We surveyed 238 first-year university students who reported a lifetime history of SI prior to entering university (74% female, 69% White, M_Age = 17.90, SD = 0.68) across eight roughly 30-day intervals, spanning their first two semesters of study. Students rated the following aspects of their wellbeing each month using five visual analogue scales, ranging from 0 (extremely poor, worst it has ever been) to 100 (extremely good, best it has ever been): subjective wellbeing, perceived stress, sense of purpose, appearance satisfaction, and social satisfaction. Participants also rated whether they had experienced SI in the past month, and completed the College Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (Renshaw, 2020), which assesses academic satisfaction, academic efficacy, school connectedness, and college gratitude.

Approximately 35% of the students reported a recurrence of suicidal thoughts during the follow-up. Binomial multilevel models indicated that greater person-centered subjective wellbeing (OR = 0.97, 95% CI = 0.96 to 0.99, p < .001) and appearance satisfaction (OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.97 to 0.99, p = .029) were associated with lower odds of suicidal thoughts in students with lifetime SI. In other words, on months where students experienced greater wellbeing and appearance satisfaction relative to their own average, they were less likely to report suicidal thoughts. In turn, academic satisfaction and school connectedness were each positively associated with subjective wellbeing (b = 0.60, SE = 0.20, p = .003; b = 0.92, SE = 0.27, p < .001, respectively) and appearance satisfaction (b = 0.56, SE = 0.17, p = .001; b = 1.89, SE = 0.21, p < .001, respectively). Unexpectedly, college gratitude was negatively associated with appearance satisfaction (b = -1.09, SE = 0.23, p < .001). Together, these results suggest that helping students succeed in their courses and develop a positive sense of community belonging may bolster resilience and protect against recurrent suicidal thoughts.