Positive psychological factors that help protect vulnerable persons from suicidal behavior are vital in understanding resiliency and suicide prevention. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether positive factors (including purpose in life, reasons for living, and coping styles) mediate the relationship between stressful life events and suicidal behaviors among 416 college student volunteers. Reasons for living inversely predicted suicidal behavior and thoughts directly as well as indirectly via an inverse relationship with depression. Purpose in life indirectly predicted suicidal behavior and thoughts via an inverse effect on depression, whereas emotion-focused coping indirectly predicted suicidal behavior and thoughts both through an effect on depression and an inverse effect on reasons for living. In addition, avoidant coping indirectly predicted suicidal behavior via a direct, positive effect on reasons for living. Reasons for living and emotion-oriented coping had the largest effects in the model. Results of this study underscore the importance of augmenting reasons for living and purpose in life among suicidal or potentially suicidal persons.

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The authors tested whether coping styles and fear of pain mediate the relationship between positive affect and negative affect on one hand and pain-related distress (PD) on the other. Among African American and Caucasian female college students, negative affect, fear of pan, and emotion-oriented coping together accounted for 34% of the variance in PD among African American woman and 40% of the variance in PD among Caucasion women. Emotion-oriented coping and fear of pain fully mediated the relationship between negative affect and PD among Caucasian women and partly mediated the relationship between negative affect and PD among African American women. Results suggest that reducing college women's reliance on emotion-oriented coping and their fears of pain may help reduce PD.

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