ABSTRACT The current study aims to examine whether family functioning would moderate the indirect effect of general psychological distress on suicidality through perceived burdensomeness (PB) and thwarted belongingness (TB). A total of 552 Chinese university students (69% female; age: M = 20.95, SD = 1.15) participated in this two‐wave longitudinal study conducted from October 2023 to April 2024. Structural equation modeling analyses were conducted to examine the hypothesized models. After controlling for initial suicidality and gender, initial general psychological distress was positively associated with suicidality 6 months later. PB at Time 2 fully mediated the adverse impact of general psychological distress at Time 1 on suicidality at Time 2. In addition, family functioning at Time 1 was found to mitigate the effect of general psychological distress at Time 1 on PB at Time 2, and alleviate the indirect effect of general psychological distress at Time 1 on suicidality at Time 2 through PB at Time 2. PB emerges as a key mechanism underlying the detrimental effects of general psychological distress on suicidality. Moreover, family functioning plays a significant role in alleviating the negative impact of general psychological distress on suicidality through PB. These findings imply that mental health professionals working with university students should seek to reduce perceived burdensomeness and improve family functioning to mitigate the effect of general psychological distress on suicidality.
Liu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.