Effect of Positive Self-Talk Training on Depression Alleviation in Students with Suicidal Ideation

Repetitive negative thinking, including rumination, is associated with a variety of depressive symptoms in students. This study aimed to investigate the effect of positive self-talk training on depression alleviation in students with suicidal ideation.

In this quasi-experimental research, we employed a pretest-posttest control group design. The statistical population consisted of all depressed students with suicidal ideation in Heris County (East Azerbaijan Province, Iran) during the 2021–22 academic year. Purposive sampling was used to select 34 students as the research sample. They were then randomly assigned into an experimental group and a control group (17 participants per group). Both groups took a pretest, and the Beck Depression Inventory was used to collect the necessary data. The experimental group received positive self-talk training in eight 90-minute sessions (two sessions a week), after which both groups took the posttest. ANCOVA was used for data analysis in SPSS version 26.

The study included 34 male and female students with an average age of 15.12±2.69 years. The mean±SD of depression in the experimental group in the pretest and posttest stages were 37.53±6.62 and 12.47±6.33, respectively (P<0.001). The difference between the mean±SD of depression in the control group was not significant in the pretest (33.65±6.59) and posttest (37.12±6.30) stages. The results showed that positive self-talk training had a significant effect on depression in students with suicidal ideation (P<0.001). Thus, positive self-talk training alleviated depression in the students.

Positive self-talk training can be applied to mitigate depression in students with suicidal ideation. The findings of this study can be practically beneficial to psychologists, school counselors, principals, and teachers.