The Role of Perceived Stress, Alexithymia and Mindfulness in Predicting Suicidal Thoughts of Nursing Students

Nursing students are one of the groups at risk of suicide, and suicidal thoughts are an important predictive factor for committing suicide and completing it. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the role of perceived stress, alexithymia and mindfulness in predicting suicidal thoughts of nursing students.

The current research is descriptive and correlational. The number of 180 nursing students studying at the Islamic Azad University of Tehran, Faculty of Medical Sciences, in the second half of 2020, was selected using the available sampling method and responded to the Perceived Stress Scale of Cohen et al (1983). Toronto Alexithymia Scale Bagby et al (1994), Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale Brown and Ryan (2003), and Beck Scale for  Suicidal Ideation (1991). The collected data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and multivariate regression analysis in SPSS-24 software.

The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between perceived stress and alexithymia with suicidal thoughts (P<0.01). There is a negative and significant relationship between mindfulness and suicidal thoughts (P<0.01).  Also, the results of multivariate regression analysis also revealed that 49.9% of the variance of nursing students' suicidal thoughts is explained by perceived stress, alexithymia and mindfulness.

The findings of the present study showed that perceived stress and emotional ataxia as a risk factor and mindfulness as a protective factor play a role in the occurrence of suicidal thoughts. Therefore, in order to prevent suicide attempts among nursing students, it is recommended to pay special attention to treatments based on emotion regulation, cognitive therapy based on mindfulness, dialectical behavior therapy, and treatment based on mentalization.