The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Reducing Suicidal Ideations and Increasing Self-Compassion in Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on reducing suicidal thoughts and increasing self-compassion in students. This study was a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test with the control group. All the male and female students of Payam-e-Noor University of Kermanshah who were studying in the first semester of the academic year 2018-2019 constituted the statistical population of this study. Twenty-four subjects with high scores on suicidal ideation and low scores on compassion were selected from the study population and then randomly assigned into two groups of 12. In the pre-test, the Beck Suicide Thought Questionnaire (1979) and Nef et al. (2009) Self-Compassion Questionnaire were completed in both groups and after the experiment, both groups completed the corresponding questionnaires again. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was administered to the experimental group during 8 sessions of 2 hours weekly. The control group received no treatment in this study. Finally, the data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance. The results showed that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was effective in decreasing suicidal thoughts and increasing students' self-compassion (P<0.01). According to the research findings, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is an effective way to prevent suicide and enhance compassion in students.