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. 2025 Jul 30;25(1):2587.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-23877-9.

The relationships among the meaning of life, coping styles, and suicidal ideation: a network analysis

Yang He  1 , Xufeng Liu  2 , Tianqi Yang  3 , Xiang Xu  4 , Wei Liu  5 , Keiwei Sun  6 , Shengjun Wu  7
Affiliations

The relationships among the meaning of life, coping styles, and suicidal ideation: a network analysis

Yang He et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Suicide is a serious global public health problem, and suicidal ideation is a significant predictor of and risk factor for suicide deaths. Previous studies have confirmed the relationships among suicidal ideation, the meaning of life and coping styles using latent variables but have overlooked the heterogeneity of symptoms.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the fine-grained relationships among these three factors based on network analysis to provide a theoretical basis to identify potential psychological interventions for suicidal ideation.

Methods: These factors were investigated by administering the Chinese Meaning of life Questionnaire (C-MLQ), the Simple Coping Styles Questionnaire (SCSQ), and the Suicidal Ideation Self-Assessment Scale (SIOSS) to 800 self-reported healthy adults. Analyses of network structure and bridge expected influence (BEI) were conducted with R4.1.1 software.

Results: The network showed a total of 18 edges for the meaning of life, coping styles, and suicidal ideation communities. Of these, S1, "pessimism", had the greatest negative BEI value (-0.25) in the suicidal ideation community; M1, "perception of meaning of life", had the greatest negative BEI value (-0.42) in the meaning of life and coping styles communities; and C2, "negative coping", had the greatest positive BEI value (0.31).

Conclusions: Complex pathways exist among meaning of life, coping styles and suicidal ideation. Negative coping is the strongest risk factor for suicidal ideation, the perception of the meaning of life is the strongest protective factor for suicidal ideation, and pessimism is a potential target for suicide prevention interventions.

Keywords: Bridge centrality value; Coping styles; Meaning of life; Network analysis; Prevention; Suicidal ideation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study adhered to the ethical standards outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. Participants provided informed consent before completing the questionnaire on the WeChat application and all methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Independent Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University (No. KY20224106-1). Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The meaning of life, coping styles, and suicidal ideation network structure and the BEI values in the network. (A) The meaning of life, coping styles, and suicidal ideation network structure. The blue and red lines represent positive and negative partial correlations, respectively. The thick lines represent strong partial correlations. (B) The BEI values of the nodes in the meaning of life, coping styles, and suicidal ideation network (raw scores). C1 = positive coping, C2 = negative coping, M1 = presence of meaning of life, M2 = search for meaning of life, S1 = pessimism, S2 = sleep, S3 = despair, BEI = bridge expected influence
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