Citation

Deng Y, Li X, Liu L, Chui WH. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021; 18(1): e208.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph18010208

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Suicidal behavior is a severe problem among drug users. This study examines influential factors related to suicide attempts and analyzes possible mediators of the relationship between perceived social support and suicide attempts amongst Chinese drug users under compulsory institutional drug treatment. Taking perceived social support as the independent variable, we found that the relationship between suicide attempts and perceived social support is mediated by self-esteem as a protective factor and depression as a risk factor. Path analysis shows that self-esteem contributes relatively more to the indirect effects than depression does, accounting for 31.1% and 24.2% of the total effect, respectively. Generally speaking, the findings of this study point to an urgent need for addressing suicide attempts among Chinese drug users while treating self-esteem as the protective factor that deserves as substantial attention as depression receives.

Language: en

Keywords

depression; self-esteem; Chinese drug users; perceived social support; suicide attempts