Using recursive partitioning to predict presence and severity of suicidal ideation amongst college students

Abstract

Objective

Predicting the presence and severity of suicidal ideation in college students is important, as deaths by suicide amongst young adults have increased in the past 20 years.

Participants

We recruited college students (N = 5494) from ten universities across eight states.

Method

Participants answered three questionnaires related to lifetime and past month suicidal ideation, and an indicator of suicidal ideation in a DSM-5 symptom measure. We used recursive partitioning to predict the presence, absence, and severity, of suicidal ideation.

Results

Recursive partitioning models varied in their accuracy and performance. The best-performing model consisted of predictors and outcomes measured by the DSM-5 Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure. Sexual orientation was also an important predictor in most models.

Conclusions

A single measure of DSM-5 symptom severity may help universities understand suicide severity to promote targeted interventions. Though further work is needed, as similar scaling amongst predictors could have influenced the model.

Keywords:

• College students
• recursive partitioning
• suicide

Acknowledgments

Matison McCool was supported in part by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; T32AA018108 (PI: Witkiewitz). Frank Schwebel was supported in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse; RM1DA055301-01S1 (PI: Witkiewitz).

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of the University of New Mexico .

Ethics and integrity

The Research was approved by the Institutional Review Board at all study Sites.