ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Personality Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1675266
The Association Between Childhood Trauma and Suicidal Ideation in Medical Students: The Role of Alexithymia and Resilience
Provisionally accepted
- 1The First School of Clinical Medicine, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui 230032, China, hefei, China
- 2Department of Endocrinology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310016, China, Hangzhou, China
- 3The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui 230032, China, Hefei, China
- 4Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China, hefei, China
- 5School of Nursing, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui 230032, China., hefei, China
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Objective: To reveal the association between childhood trauma and suicidal ideation in medical students and explore the potential mediating roles of alexithymia and psychological resilience. Methods: Based on a cross-sectional survey conducted at a medical university in Anhui Province, 2,377 medical students were included. Assessments were performed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Resilience Scale, and the Suicidal Ideation Scale. Results: Our results showed that childhood trauma significantly increased the risk of suicidal ideation in medical students (β=0.500, 95% CI: [0.470, 0.540]; The association was mediated by an alexithymia-resilience chain (mediating effect β=0.03, 95% CI: [0.029,0.040]. Conclusion: Emphasizing attention to medical students' childhood trauma experiences, focusing on enhancing their emotion-processing abilities, and promoting psychological resilience represent effective strategies for preventing suicide risk in this population.
Keywords: childhood trauma, Suicidal Ideation, alexithymia, resilience, Medical students
Received: 29 Jul 2025; Accepted: 18 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gao, Mu, Zhang, Li, Wang, Hu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Peng Wang, wangpengdev@163.com
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