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. 2025 Oct;73(8):2949-2959.
doi: 10.1080/07448481.2024.2351419. Epub 2024 May 10.

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

Matison W McCool  1 , Frank J Schwebel  1 , Matthew R Pearson  1 , Maria M Wong  2 ; Addictions Research Team
Affiliations

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

Matison W McCool et al. J Am Coll Health. 2025 Oct.

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.

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Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Likelihood of Experiencing Suicidal Ideation in Lifetime
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Likelihood of Experiencing Suicidal Ideation in Past Month
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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