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dc.contributor.authorLew, Bob
dc.contributor.authorKõlves, Kairi
dc.contributor.authorZhang, Jie
dc.contributor.authorZhizhong, Wang
dc.contributor.authorKoenig, Harold G
dc.contributor.authorYip, Paul SF
dc.contributor.authorAbu Talib, Mansor
dc.contributor.authorOsman, Augustine
dc.contributor.authorSiau, Ching Sin
dc.contributor.authorChan, Caryn Mei Hsien
dc.date.accessioned2021-05-21T03:03:32Z
dc.date.available2021-05-21T03:03:32Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pone.0251698
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/404538
dc.description.abstractBackground Several past studies indicated that religious beliefs, orientation, and practice are protective of suicide. Findings from recent studies in China suggest that religiosity may contribute to increased suicidality. However, few studies have examined the associations between religious affiliation across different faiths and suicidality in China. Objective The current study examines the association between religious affiliation and suicidality among college students in six provinces in China. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 11,407 college students from six universities in Ningxia, Shandong, Shanghai, Jilin, Qinghai, and Shaanxi. We collected the data between October 2017 and March 2018 using self-report questionnaires. They included self-report measures of depression, psychache, hopelessness, self-esteem, social support, and life purpose. Results Participants with a Christian affiliation had 1.5 times (95% CI: 1.14, 1.99, p = 0.004) higher odds of indicating an elevated suicide risk, 3.1 times (95% CI: 1.90, 5.04, p<0.001) higher odds of indicating a previous suicide attempt, and increased overall suicidality (B = 0.105, p < 0.001) after accounting for demographic and risk/protective factors. Christians also scored the highest in depression, psychache, hopelessness, and the lowest social support, self-esteem, and purpose in life. Muslims reported decreased suicidality (B = -0.034, p = 0.031). Buddhism/Daoism yielded non-significant results in the multivariate analyses. Conclusions Christian college students reported increased suicidality levels, perhaps due to public policies on religion. The decreased suicidality levels among Muslims may be attributed to higher perceived social support. The associations between religious affiliation and suicidality, depression, and hopelessness contrast sharply with US samples. This finding may be influenced by interactions between the religious denomination, individual, and social/political factors. This conclusion includes the possibility of anti-religious discrimination, which this paper did not investigate as a possible mediator and therefore remains a conjecture worthy of future investigation.
dc.description.peerreviewedYes
dc.languageEnglish
dc.publisherPublic Library of Science (PLoS)
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrome0251698
dc.relation.ispartofissue5
dc.relation.ispartofjournalPLoS One
dc.relation.ispartofvolume16
dc.subject.fieldofresearchCriminology
dc.subject.fieldofresearchSociology
dc.subject.fieldofresearchPsychology
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode4402
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode4410
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode52
dc.titleReligious affiliation and suicidality among college students in China: A cross-sectional study across six provinces
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.descriptionC1 - Articles
dcterms.bibliographicCitationLew, B; Kõlves, K; Zhang, J; Zhizhong, W; Koenig, HG; Yip, PSF; Abu Talib, M; Osman, A; Siau, CS; Chan, CMH, Religious affiliation and suicidality among college students in China: A cross-sectional study across six provinces, One, 2021, 16 (5), pp. e0251698
dcterms.licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.date.updated2021-05-20T21:34:15Z
dc.description.versionVersion of Record (VoR)
gro.rights.copyright© 2021 Lew et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
gro.hasfulltextFull Text
gro.griffith.authorKolves, Kairi


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