Page 136 - GHES-3-3

Global Health Economics and
Sustainability
Polyvictimization and suicidal behaviors

Table 1. Descriptive statistics and correlations among the study variables
Variables N (%) M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1. Age 21.56 2.83 −
(ranges:
18 – 31)
2.White 427 (55) −0.04 –
3. African 128 (17) −0.02 −0.42*** –
American
4. Hispanic 94 (12) 0.12** −0.31*** −0.16*** –
5. Others 125 (16) 9.06 −0.30*** −0.13*** −0.11** –
6. Male 184 (28) 0.14*** 0.04 −0.02 0.05 0.07* –
7. Female 474 (71) −0.07 0.16*** 0.03 0.02 0.01 −0.68*** –
8. No preferred 10 (1) 0.01 0.01 −0.02 0.03 0.01 −0.06 −0.14*** –
gender
9. Polyvictimization
No 402 (51) 0.44 −0.09** −0.13*** 0.07 0.04 0.01 −0.07 −0.15*** −0.09* –
Yes 138 (18)
10. Suicidal 3.81 7.56 −0.15** −0.19*** −0.03 −0.04 0.02 −0.20*** −0.18*** 0.03 0.44*** –
thoughts/
behaviors
12. Resilience 36.24 7.37 −0.02 −0.01 0.13*** 0.08* −0.08* 0.12** −0.02 0.01 −0.10** −0.29*** –
13. Perceived 62.78 16.42 −0.01 0.19*** −0.11** −0.02 −0.14*** −0.05 0.16*** −0.05 −0.22*** −0.35*** 0.24*** –
social support
Note. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01 ***p < 0.001. Others are the sum of Asian, American Indian, Eskimo, or mixed races. No preferred gender is the sum of
nonbinary/third gender, and prefer not to say. Reference is nonpolyvictimization.

p < 0.001), and female gender (r = 0.16, p < 0.001) but This implies that perceived social support buffers the
negatively correlated with African American demographic effect of polyvictimization on suicidal thoughts/behaviors.
(r = −0.11, p < 0.01), others (r = −0.14, p < 0.001), and A simple slope analysis was conducted to explore the
suicidal thoughts/behaviors (r = −0.35, p < 0.001). significant visible interaction between polyvictimization
and perceived social support on suicidal thoughts/
3.1. Mediating effect of resilience behaviors. In Figure 2, the slope for low perceived
Table 2 and Figure 1 show the results of the estimated direct social support indicates much higher suicidal thoughts/
effect of polyvictimization and suicidal thoughts/behaviors behaviors among those with low polyvictimization and
and the estimated indirect effect of polyvictimization high polyvictimization than among those with high
on suicidal thoughts/behaviors through resilience. perceived social support. This result suggests that when
Polyvictimization was associated with suicidal thoughts/ individuals who experience polyvictimization receive
behaviors (c’: β = 4.53, SE = 0.57, 95% bias-corrected and social support, they are less likely to have suicidal thoughts
accelerated confidence interval [BCa CI = 3.413, 5.64]). and behaviors. As Table 4 indicates, the conditional
Bootstrapped sampling indicated a statistically significant indirect effects of polyvictimization on suicidal thoughts/
indirect effect of polyvictimization on suicidal thoughts/ behaviors for low (effect = 4.98, SE = 0.69, 95% BCa
behaviors through resilience (ab: β = 0.347, SE = 0.16, 95% CI [3.63, 6.33]), medium (effect = 4.00, SE = 0.57, 95%
BCa CI [0.053, 0.679]); therefore, this model was partially BCa CI [2.88, 5.12]), and high levels of perceived social
mediated. support (effect = 3.02, SE = 0.79, 95% BCa CI [1.47, 4.57])
were significant.
3.2. Moderating effect of perceived social support
4. Discussion
Table 3 shows that perceived social support has a
significant moderating effect on the association between The SAMS effectively explains our findings concerning
polyvictimization and suicidal thoughts/behaviors college students with polyvictimization experiences. The
(β = −0.071, SE = 0.034, 95% BCa CI [−0.138, −0.004]). findings indicate that college students who have experienced

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 128 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.3737