Presenting a Model for Predicting Suicidal Thoughts with the Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy in Connection with Attachment Styles among Students

 Suicide is a tragedy for the individual, family, and society. The probability of suicide is operationally defined based on four indicators of hopelessness, suicidal thoughts, hostility-impulsivity, and negative self-evaluation, and it has been shown that these four factors can distinguish normal people from suicidal people. The suicide process also includes thinking, planning, acting, and finally completing the suicide. This behavior is inherently self-motivated, meaning that the person is doing it themselves, and intentionality is an inherent characteristic of doing it. According to studies conducted in this field, these events depict the progressive behavior of suicide in such a way that the occurrence of each increases the risk of the next stage in this circle. Knowing the risk and protective factors that can reduce suicidal thoughts will play a major role in preventing people from entering this costly and deadly chain, especially in early adulthood. Self-efficacy is one of the compatible cognitive characteristics that are considered important factors in the protection of suicidal thoughts and have significant effects on the perception of stress and coping mechanisms in the fields of psychological and physical medicine. Also, self-efficacy has a significant effect on a person's behavioral style, effort, and persistence. People with low self-efficacy usually feel powerless, unlike people with high self-efficacy who are more in control and less threatened in stressful situations, so a person with suicidal thoughts is likely to have a lower sense of self-efficacy. The relationship between attachment styles and self-efficacy and suicidal thoughts has been examined in past research, and the results have shown that secure attachment style has a positive relationship with self-efficacy and a significant negative relationship with suicidal thoughts or factors related to suicide attempts. But at the same time, the mediating role of self-efficacy about attachment styles with suicidal thoughts has not been investigated. In this research, the researcher seeks to fill this research gap. Those were considered the main predictive variables for suicidal thoughts. Also, considering the role of self-efficacy in adjusting and regulating one's emotions, it can be considered a mediating role as in past research.

 The statistical population of this correlation study included all the students of Shiraz Azad University in 1402-1401, which was equal to 19635 people based on the statistics obtained from the education of Shiraz Azad University. To determine the sample size, Cochran's formula was used and according to the calculations, the sample size was determined to be 380 people. Collins and Reed's (1990) attachment style questionnaire, Scherer et al.'s self-efficacy (1982), and Beck's suicidal thoughts (1961) were used. SPSS and Lisrel software were used for data analysis.

 The results showed that secure attachment style has a direct and significant effect on the feeling of self-efficacy and an inverse and significant effect on suicidal thoughts, and at the same time, the feeling of self-efficacy has an inverse and significant effect on suicidal thoughts. Also, the results showed that the mediating role of self-efficacy in the impact of attachment styles (secure, avoidant, ambivalent) on students' suicidal thoughts is significant at the 99% confidence level.

 In general, it can be concluded that increasing attachment styles can be a solution to increase the sense of self-efficacy, so it can be introduced as a solution to reduce suicidal thoughts. Self-efficacy leads to greater effort and persistence with obstacles and difficulties. Also, self-efficacy affects motivation through goal setting. If a person feels highly efficient in a specific field, he sets higher goals for himself, is less afraid of failure, and finds new strategies if the old strategies fail. But if the feeling of efficiency is low, the person avoids the task completely. Or quickly clears the scene if it encounters problems. It is suggested that therapists and health professionals use the results of this research in addition to prevention as a therapeutic intervention to prevent the emergence of dysregulated behaviors such as suicide. According to the results of the present study, it is suggested that health experts prioritize and choose the type of treatment for people with suicidal thoughts, as well as save time and money and achieve the maximum benefit from the methods of teaching self-efficacy and resilience skills. To use in this study, subjects were not interviewed and clinically evaluated, and self-report tools were used to collect data. Therefore, the results of the current research, like many other research, due to the use of questionnaires and self-report tools, may lead the participants to use methods based on obtaining social approval and avoiding stigma related to inadequacy, instead of actual behavior. Someone has encouraged me. As a result, caution should be used in the interpretation of research data.