The Mediating Roles of Affect Lability and Experiential Avoidance Between Distress Tolerance and Suicidal Ideation Among College Students

Objective: Suicidal ideation (SI) is highly prevalent among college students. Research has shown that college students are also more likely to experience low distress tolerance, affect lability, and experiential avoidance, which have been linked to SI. There is a critical need to examine the mechanisms that increase the risk of SI among college students. It is hypothesized that distress tolerance will be a strong predictor of SI, and affect lability as well as experiential avoidance will mediate this relationship. Participants and Methods: Participants (n = 820) from a Southeastern University completed an online survey, inquiring about demographic information, affect lability, SI, experiential avoidance, and distress tolerance. Data were analyzed utilizing structural equation modeling. Results: Distress tolerance was not directly related to SI. However, affect lability and experiential avoidance were found to mediate this relationship. Conclusions: Affect lability and experiential avoidance may be important predictors of SI among college students.