ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychopathology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1626912
Dimensions of the psychological emptiness and its relation with suicide history among college students
Provisionally accepted
- 1Business School, Chengdu University, Chengdu, China
- 2West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- 3Mental Health Education Center, Chengdu University, Chengdu, China
- 4School of Marxism, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: The psychological emptiness (PE) presents a state of emotional emptiness and lack of meaning, and is increasingly relevant in modern society. However, few studies have tried to assess its dimension and suicide history. This study aims to establish the factorial structure of PE and compare its predictive power against a standard depression inventory.Methods: A total of 45335 university students participated in the study. The 20 items involving lack of purpose, depression, and meaninglessness in life were used to evaluate the PE, alongside the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed to identify the structure of the 20 items, while confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to confirm the construct validity of the model. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the predictive relationship between the identified factors and suicide history.Results: EFA identified a three-factor structure: Depression and Self-Harm/Suicidal Tendencies (DST), Life Meaning and Purpose (LMP), and Study Motivation (SM). The three factors accounted for 23.1%, 12.6%, and 11.9% of the total variance, respectively. CFA confirmed the construct validity of the model, which showed acceptable fit indices and high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α > 0.80). Logistic regression analysis revealed that DST was the strongest predictor of suicide risk (AUC = 0.84), outperforming traditional depression scales (BDI, AUC = 0.58).Conclusions: The present study provides a comprehensive framework for understanding PE. The PE may include three psychological dimensions, while DST is a strong predictor of suicide history.
Keywords: psychological, Psychiatry, Suicide, Psychopatalogy, Behavior
Received: 13 May 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hang, Lü, Wu, Kang and Zhu. 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:
Xudong Kang, Mental Health Education Center, Chengdu University, Chengdu, China
Ye Zhu, School of Marxism, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.