ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Developmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1584446
Developmental Trajectories of Suicide Risk in College Students: A Three-Year Latent Growth Mixed Model Study
Provisionally accepted
- Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, China
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This study aimed to explore the developmental trajectories of suicide risk among college students and examine the influence of demographic, psychological, and social factors on these trajectories. A three-year follow-up study was conducted with 3,723 first-year college students from a university in Guangdong Province, China. Data were collected in October 2020, 2021, and 2022 using the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), University Personality Inventory (UPI), and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS). Latent Growth Mixed Modeling (LGMM) was employed to analyze the trajectories of suicide risk. Three distinct trajectories were identified: a "slowly decreasing suicide risk group" (81.1%), a "slowly increasing suicide risk group" (15.7%), and a "rapidly increasing suicide risk group" (3.2%). Female gender, left-behind experience, history of suicide among close relatives or acquaintances, positive psychological symptoms, and depressive symptoms were significant risk factors for higher suicide risk trajectories (all p < 0.05). The findings highlight significant heterogeneity in suicide risk trajectories among college students, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions based on individual risk profiles. Keywords: college students, suicide risk, developmental trajectories, latent growth mixture model, risk factors, mental healthSuicide is a leading cause of death globally, with an estimated 703,000 deaths annually, accounting for 1.3% of all deaths worldwide (World Health Organization, 2019). Among young people aged 15-29, suicide is the fourth leading cause of death (World Health Organization, 2019). College students, in particular, are at heightened risk for suicidal behavior due to academic pressures, social challenges, and mental health issues (Zhou et al., 2024). Suicide not only has devastating effects on individuals but also profoundly impacts families, schools, and society at large (Yang,
Keywords: suicide risk, College student, latent growth mixed model, developmental trajectories, Risk factors
Received: 27 Feb 2025; Accepted: 13 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Liu, zhang and Chen. 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: Zhuangyou Chen, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, China
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