The Relationship between Early Maladaptive Schemas and Suicidal Tendency of Students: The Moderating Role of Reasons for Living

The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating role of reasons for living in the relationship between early maladaptive schemas and suicidal tendency.

In this descriptive–correlation study, the population included all students of public universities in Bojnord city. For this purpose, 399 students were selected using stratified sampling method who answered to maladaptive schemes, suicide probability and reasons for living questionnaires. Data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient and hierarchical regression analysis by SPSS-22 software.

Findings indicate that the correlation between early maladaptive schemas and reasons for living with suicidal tendency were significant (P <0.001). Also, the interaction of schemas of the first area and reasons for living created 0.2% of the increased variance which is statistically insignificant (ΔR2=0.002, p> 0.05), and the interaction of schemas of the second area and reasons for living, created 1.5% of the increased variance which is statistically significant (ΔR2=0.015, p < 0.001).

The results showed the importance of reasons for living as the moderator of the relationship between early schemas and the suicidal tendency. Therefore, it is recommended to provide workshops for students to reduce the impact of early maladaptive schemas on the suicidal tendency.