Spirituality Moderates Hopelessness, Depression, and Suicidal Behavior among Malaysian Adolescents

Stigma, Support, and Ideation About Suicide in Indonesian Twitter: A Topic Modelling Study

Stigma surrounding suicide is a massive problem in Indonesia. Thus, it is important to study how conversations about suicide take place. We take a machine learning approach and study tweets with suicide keywords to understand how people converse about suicide or express suicide ideation. Tweets with suicide-related keywords were extracted from May to June 2023. 20,057 tweets were subject to topic modelling with an 11-topic solution. While most topics contain negative messages, no purely stigmatizing topics emerge, despite prior research suggesting overwhelming stigma. Various kinds of existential, emotional, and social tweets about suicide take place among Indonesian users, indicating that Indonesian Twitter users utilize the platform to express their thoughts and emotions. Notably, religious-spiritual keywords are highly prevalent, suggesting that in a highly religious society, there is a need for policy makers and awareness campaigns to frame their positive messaging within the society's religious context.

Spiritual Health Consequences from the Iranian Adolescents' Perspective

Spiritual health is a unique force that can influence the physical, mental, and social dimensions of life. In order to know the positive effects of spiritual health, it is necessary to explain the adolescents' experiences in this area. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate Iranian adolescents' experiences regarding the effects of spiritual health. This study was conducted based on a qualitative approach using content analysis. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 adolescents aged 14-18 years. Subsequently, the obtained data were analyzed using the Graneheim and Lundman method. In total, three major categories emerged from data analysis, including mental health promotion, self-control, and purposefulness in life. Considering the significant effects of spiritual health on adolescents' development, it is essential to pay attention to this dimension of health and develop plans to enhance it.

An Exploration of Spirituality, Religion, and Suicidal Ideation Among Colombian Adolescents

This study seeks to know if there is a relationship between measures of suicidal ideation and cognitive orientation towards spirituality, religious attitudes and beliefs, and religious practice. A non-experimental, descriptive, and correlational design, cross-sectional and quantitative approach was used. The sample was made up of 1372 adolescents, 59.2% female, 40.8% male, mean age 14.57, s = 1.75, range 12-17 years old, students from public schools in two cities in Colombia. The results indicated an inverse relationship between negative suicidal ideation (NSI) and cognitive orientation towards spirituality, beliefs and attitudes, and religious practice, and a positive relationship between them and positive suicidal ideation. The regression analysis showed the contribution of spirituality, religious beliefs, and attitudes in the prediction of NSI. In conclusion, the dimensions of spirituality and religiosity can help reduce suicidal thinking, acting as protective factors. The cultivation of a spiritual and/or religious life can be suitable and complementary ways as measures of prevention of suicidal behaviour.

Analysis of Factors Related to Spiritual Psychology and Quality of Life in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease Based on Artificial Intelligence IBD Nursing Technology

To investigate the characteristics of psychological symptoms in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), to study the relationship between psychological symptoms and quality of life, and to provide some theoretical basis for the corresponding psychological treatment of IBD patients with psychiatric abnormalities. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and its gradual application to the medical field, it has brought new ideas to the medical development, and its research and application in IBD, including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), is increasing. Machine learning is used to select reasonable models and methods to help the prediction, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of IBD. In this study, we improved on the classical unidirectional LSTM model by adding backward and forward LSTM layers, designed a bidirectional LSTM model to improve the shortcomings of unidirectional LSTM with insufficient dependence on the posterior, introduced the contribution rate α to adjust the weight matrix of the forward LSTM layer and the backward LSTM layer, and experimentally verified the correctness and superiority of the proposed model. A total of 159 patients with IBD and 89 healthy people were collected and psychologically assessed using the general status questionnaire, the 90-item symptom checklist (SCL-90). Patients with IBD are prone to a combination of obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal, depressive, hostile, and other abnormal psychological symptoms, and their quality of life is significantly reduced; quality of life is mainly affected by disease condition, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, and paranoia, and patients in the active stage of the disease with heavy symptoms of depression, paranoia, and interpersonal sensitivity have low quality of life.

The Relationship Among Spirituality, Self-Efficacy, COVID-19 Anxiety, and Hopelessness During the COVID-19 Process in Turkey: A Path Analysis

This study explores the relationship among spirituality, self-efficacy, COVID-19 anxiety, and hopelessness. The participants are comprised of 418 individuals (282 females and 136 males) in Turkey whose ages range between 18 and 61 years old. The participants completed the following surveys: The Coronavirus Anxiety Scale, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the Spiritual Orientation Inventory. The relationships among the variables have been examined using path analysis. According to the results, spirituality, self-efficacy, and COVID-19 anxiety have direct effects on hopelessness. The analysis also shows self-efficacy to mediate the relationship between spirituality and hopelessness. The proposed model has good fit indices. The findings are discussed in the context of the literature on COVID-19, spirituality, self-efficacy, and hopelessness, with practical implications for mental health professionals being provided.

Family and Friends Support and Hope in Chinese Adolescents: The Mediating Effects of Self-Esteem

Structural equation modeling was used to investigate presumed antecedents of hope in a community-based sample of Chinese adolescents. Specifically, we evaluated the mediating role of self-esteem in the link between social support from family and friends and individual differences in hope. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Children's Hope Scale were administered to 1,654 adolescent students (781 boys and 873 girls) from Chinese senior high schools. Social support from family and friends correlated equally with hope levels of participants, demonstrating the importance of both sources of support. Self-esteem fully mediated the relationship between family support and hope and partially (23.6%) mediated the relationship between friends support and hope. Results support a social-cognitive model of the origins of hope among adolescents. Findings also suggest implications for the design of hope-promoting environments for adolescents that extend beyond a focus on the individual to incorporate more comprehensive systemic components, including social support from family and friends. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, xx(xx), xx-xx.].

Do fear of COVID-19 and religious coping predict depression, anxiety, and stress among the Arab population during health crisis?

The roles of fear of COVID-19 and religious coping were examined in relation to depression, anxiety, and stress. Participants (N = 259; 88% female; M_age = 32.96, SD = 8.88) completed measures of fear of COVID-19, religious coping, depression, anxiety, and stress. Results showed that fear of COVID-19 was associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. Negative religious coping was associated with depression, anxiety, and stress while positive religious coping was only associated with depression and stress. Fear of COVID-19 and negative religious coping may be detrimental to mental health while positive religious coping may reduce depression and stress.

Religious Perfectionism Scale: Assessment of Validity and Reliability Among Undergraduate Students in Iran

Religious perfectionism is a construct that may help to either improve mental health or cause mental health difficulties. The Religious Perfectionism Scale (RPS; Wang in J Relig Health 59: 318-333, 2020) is a useful tool for assessing religious perfectionism around the world, but its psychometric properties have yet to be tested in Iran. The sample in the present study consisted of 300 Iranian undergraduate students (180 females) from Azad University who completed the RPS, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-2, and the Moral Perfectionism Scale. The impact score was used to determine face validity, and the values of the impact score for all translated items were greater than 1.5, meaning that the items had satisfactory face validity. The Content Validity Index (CVI) values were above the acceptable cutoff score of 0.7, indicating the acceptable content validity of items. The Content Validity Ratio (CVR) scores were greater than the cutoff score of the Lawshe table (.78), indicating the satisfactory essentiality of the items. To measure construct validity, the results of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS software confirmed the scale with two subscales (zealous religious dedication and religious self-criticism). No item was removed from the scale as all factor loading values were greater than 0.49. The findings support the psychometric properties of the scale for measuring religious perfectionism among undergraduate students in Iran.

The hospice as a learning space: a death education intervention with a group of adolescents

Background

The denial of death in Western society deprives young people of the tools to derive meaning from experiences of death and dying. Literature shows that death education may allow them to become familiar with this topic without causing negative effects. This article describes the effects of a death education course with adolescents, wherein participants were given the opportunity to meet palliative doctors and palliative psychologists at school and in a hospice, where they were able to converse with the families of the dying.

Methods

This study used mixed methods and included an evaluation of a death education intervention with longitudinal follow-up of outcomes. The course involved 87 secondary school students (experimental group) aged between 16 and 20 years. We also recruited a control group of 76 similarly-aged students to observe differences. The variables we examined were: alexithymia, representation of death, value attributed to life and spirituality. These were measured with the following instruments: the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, the Testoni Death Representation Scale, the Personal Meaning Profile and the Spiritual Orientation Inventory, respectively. To better understand how the students perceived the experience, we asked the experimental group to answer some open-ended questions. Their answers were analysed through thematic analysis.

Results

The study showed that death education and the hospice experience did not produce negative effects, but rather allowed students to decrease alexithymia, improving their ability to recognise and express emotions. Thematic analysis revealed that all participants perceived the experience as very positive.

Conclusions

Our findings affirm that death education programs can be successfully implemented in high schools, and that they can usefully involve local hospices and palliative care professionals, especially physicians and psychologists.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12904-021-00747-w.

Spirituality and Parenting among Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence

PURPOSE

While spirituality and parenting have been examined among caregivers experiencing adversity, less research has explored these factors among mother survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Given the potentially protective role of spirituality, understanding how parenting is associated with spirituality is important.

METHOD

The current study explored parenting practices, parent-child communication, and spirituality among 175 women caregivers who had experienced recent IPV. Hierarchical linear regression was used to examine associations between maternal age, education, HIV status, and illicit substance use (model 1); child age and gender (model 2); parent-child comfort communicating about sexual practices, IPV, HIV/AIDS, and substance use (model 3); and positive and negative parenting practices (model 4) with spirituality.

RESULTS

Findings suggested positive parenting practices, greater comfort talking about IPV, and greater discomfort talking about substance use were associated with higher spirituality.

CONCLUSIONS

Results highlight the value of parenting and communication strategies among women caregivers experiencing recent adversity.

Gender Differences Related to Spirituality, Coping Skills and Risk Factors of Suicide Attempt: A Cross-Sectional Study of French Adolescent Inpatients

Background: Suicide attempts in adolescence represent a major public health concern, since these behaviors are associated with psychosocial burden and an increased risk of suicide. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore possible gender differences related to protective and risk factors in adolescents who have attempted suicide. Methods: Participants were French adolescents hospitalized for attempt suicide in five French pediatric departments. The participants were evaluated on 12 instruments measuring individual risk and protective factors. Results: Our sample included 320 adolescents aged 13-17 years (M = 14.43, SD = 1.29), of whom 82% were female and 35% were repeat attempters. Boys had greater difficulties at school and used more lethal means such as strangulation. We failed to find any differences between the two groups as regards the main Axis I psychiatric diagnoses. Boys tend to use more non-productive coping skills such as tension reduction or wishful thinking and girls use more reference to other strategies such as seeking social support. Although spirituality scores were low overall sample, they were significantly higher among girls. Conclusions: In the end, we find little difference between the two groups in terms of risk factors. However, we have shown gender differences in spirituality and some coping strategies. These results should be taken into consideration when designing suicide prevention programs.

The Impact of Fasting on the Psychological Well-Being of Muslim Graduate Students

The main objective of this research was to evaluate the impact of fasting on the psychological well-being of Muslim graduate students. In a single-group pretest posttest research design, students who intended to fast in the month of Ramadan were asked to respond to a psychological well-being scale and its subscales before and after the end of fasting month of Ramadan. Findings show that fasting led to the promotion of overall psychological well-being, self-acceptance, autonomy, positive relations, environmental mastery, and personal growth among students who fasted in this month.

Influence of Spiritual Dimensions on Suicide Risk: The Role of Regional Differences

The field of suicide prevention has been enriched by research on the association between spirituality and suicide. Many authors have suggested focusing on the various dimensions of religiosity in order to better understand the association between religion and suicidal risk, but it is unclear whether the relationship between spirituality and suicidality differs between countries with different cultures, life values, and sociohistorical experiences. To explore this, the aim of this multicenter study was to investigate the possible relationship between suicide and spirituality in Italy and Austria. In the two countries, two different groups of subjects participated: psychiatric patients and university students. The patients were evaluated with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. In addition, the following measures were used: a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale-B, the Symptom-Checklist-90-Standard, and the Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being. Our results confirmed the multifactorial nature of the relation between suicide risk and the various religious/spiritual dimensions, including religious/spiritual well-being and hope immanent. However, regional differences moderated this relationship in both the clinical and nonclinical samples.

Role of Spirituality on the Association Between Depression and Quality of Life in Stroke Survivor-Care Partner Dyads

BACKGROUND

Little is known about the protective effect of spirituality on the association between known risk factors such as depression and quality of life (QOL) in stroke survivor-care partner dyads. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the moderating role of spirituality on the association between depressive symptomatology and QOL in stroke survivor-care partner dyads.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Longitudinal design with 223 stroke survivor-care partner dyads enrolled at survivor discharge from rehabilitation hospitals. Data collection was performed over 12 months. We measured survivors' and care partners' depression, quality of life, and spirituality. Examining the moderating role of spirituality on the association between depressive symptoms and QOL within survivor-care partner dyads, we used a traditional Actor-Partner-Interdependence Model and a basic Actor-Partner-Interdependence Model moderation model for a mixed variable. Survivors (51% male) and care partners (66% female) were 70.7 and 52.3 years old, respectively. The survivor's spirituality significantly moderated the association between care partner depressive symptomatology and survivor psychological QOL (B=0.03, P<0.05) and moderated the association between care partner depressive symptoms and care partner physical (B=0.05, P<0.001) and psychological (B=0.04, P<0.001) QOL. The care partner's own level of spirituality was significantly positively associated with their physical QOL (B=0.28, P<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings from this study have broad implications for the role of spirituality in relation to QOL in medical-health contexts and the importance of examining such concepts within a dyadic framework. Greater awareness of the importance of spirituality among clinicians and nurses may improve cultural competence in healthcare services.

Depression and hopelessness in Turkish healthcare workers: The moderating and mediating roles of meaning in life

Healthcare workers who served in southern cities of Turkey have been directly and indirectly affected by the civil war in Syria due to stress and trauma. Hopelessness in these healthcare workers can be a potential contributor to their levels of depression. On the other hand, meaning in life, as both moderating and mediating variable, can serve to counteract depression. This is a study of 286 Turkish healthcare workers who served in a southern border city of Turkey and Syria in February and March of 2018. The study examined the effects of hopelessness and meaning in life on depression level including the moderating and mediating effects of meaning in life on the relationship between hopelessness and depression. A hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping procedure were employed to test the research questions. This study found that hopelessness positively predicted depression and meaning in life negatively predicted depression. Meaning in life significantly moderated and partially mediated the association between hopelessness and depression. Healthcare workers who served in a conflict area experienced more depression when they had more hopelessness and less meaning in life. Moreover, meaning in life played a central role as both moderator and mediator. Results are discussed with implications and limitations.