Religious affiliation and suicidality among college students in China: A cross-sectional study across six provinces

Abstract

Background Several past studies indicated that religious beliefs, orientation, and practice are protective of suicide. Findings from recent studies in China suggest that religiosity may contribute to increased suicidality. However, few studies have examined the associations between religious affiliation across different faiths and suicidality in China. Objective The current study examines the association between religious affiliation and suicidality among college students in six provinces in China. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 11,407 college students from six universities in Ningxia, Shandong, Shanghai, Jilin, Qinghai, and Shaanxi. We collected the data between October 2017 and March 2018 using self-report questionnaires. They included self-report measures of depression, psychache, hopelessness, self-esteem, social support, and life purpose. Results Participants with a Christian affiliation had 1.5 times (95% CI: 1.14, 1.99, p = 0.004) higher odds of indicating an elevated suicide risk, 3.1 times (95% CI: 1.90, 5.04, p<0.001) higher odds of indicating a previous suicide attempt, and increased overall suicidality (B = 0.105, p < 0.001) after accounting for demographic and risk/protective factors. Christians also scored the highest in depression, psychache, hopelessness, and the lowest social support, self-esteem, and purpose in life. Muslims reported decreased suicidality (B = -0.034, p = 0.031). Buddhism/Daoism yielded non-significant results in the multivariate analyses. Conclusions Christian college students reported increased suicidality levels, perhaps due to public policies on religion. The decreased suicidality levels among Muslims may be attributed to higher perceived social support. The associations between religious affiliation and suicidality, depression, and hopelessness contrast sharply with US samples. This finding may be influenced by interactions between the religious denomination, individual, and social/political factors. This conclusion includes the possibility of anti-religious discrimination, which this paper did not investigate as a possible mediator and therefore remains a conjecture worthy of future investigation.

Looking Into Recent Suicide Rates and Trends in Malaysia: A Comparative Analysis

“…Nevertheless, some nations have lower suicide rates, not necessarily because of poor reporting and recording of the cause of death. Lester (8) reviewed research on suicide in Muslim countries and found that the suicide rate was consistently low in countries where Islam was the predominant religion, and the protectiveness of Islam against suicide has been confirmed by other scholars (9)(10)(11)(12). Therefore, the effect of poor reporting and recording of the cause of death, and the higher odds of undetermined, accidental, and other violent mortality rates as possible sources of underreported suicides, may be factors influencing the lower suicide rates reported in Muslim countries (13,14).…”

Trends of completed suicide rates among Malaysian elderly between 1995 and 2020

“…Malaysia had the highest average SR ratio:1.7 compared to the other nine majority Muslim countries (average rate ratio range of 0.4-1.0) [12]. In other age groups, Muslims reported decreased suicidality (B = -0.034, p = 0.031) compared to Christianity and Buddhism among university students in China [26]. Some studies show disparities and differences in SR across ethnicity in the United Kingdom [27], in the United States [28], and in Singapore [17], and the relationship has been consistent and explored in other countries [29].…”

The role of spirituality and religiosity on the suicidal ideation of medical students

“…Similar results were observed among medical students, in which spirituality was also associated with a lower risk for suicidal ideation (Wachholtz & Rogoff, 2013). This seems to be explained by the fact that spiritual well-being promotes positive feelings like happiness, existence, and optimism and acts protecting against the negative feelings of loneliness and social isolation (Lew et al, 2021).…”