The Moderating Role of Gender on the Relationship Between Perceived Social Support and Suicide Attitude Among Male and Female Students

This research was conducted with the aim of testing the moderating model of gender in the relationship between the perceived social support and suicide attitude in university students. In this correlational research, 217 participants (108 male and 109 female) who were selected through convenience sampling method from the statistical community of undergraduate students of Shahid Beheshti University, answered the questions of the assessment package. Participants responded to the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet& Farley, 1988) and the Adolescent Suicide Questionnaire (Kurz& Moller, 1984). In order to test the causal model of moderating effects, the statistical method of hierarchical regression analysis was used. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis showed that while each of the variables of the sources of support experiences and gender, separately, statistically, significantly predicted the suicide attitude, the regression weights related to the interactive path of the sources of support and gender, in the prediction suicide attitude was not statistically significant. Overall, the results of this research provided additional evidence in defense of the functional characteristics of gender-independent support experiences in the context of self-harm behaviors among college students. In this research, the results consistent with the other pieces of information showed that the perception of supportive experiences through improvement in the coping resources of male and female students, protects them in the same way, against resorting to self-harm choices.