orensic P F sy f c o h l o a l n o r g u y o J Journal of Forensic Psychology Zhang et al., J Foren Psy 2016, 1:2 ISSN: 2475-319X DOI: 10.4172/2475-319X.1000106 Research Article Open Access Effects of Psychological Strains on Chinese College Students’ Depression and Suicidal Ideation Jie Zhang1*, Yingjiang Liu2 and Dwight Hennessy1 1State University of New York, Buffalo, USA 2Central University of Finance and Economics School of Social Development, Beijing, China *Corresponding author: Jie Zhang, Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14222, USA, E-mail:
[email protected] Rec date: Feb 12, 2016, Acc date: Jun 2, 2016, Pub date: Jun 9, 2016 Copyright: © 2016 Zhang J, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Psychological strains have been found more prevalent than mental disorders among Chinese rural young suicides, but the association between psychological strains and mental disorders, especially depression and suicidal ideation, is still unknown. For the present study, we used the data from 1,298 college students for a survey research conducted on a university campus in Beijing China, in 2012. Psychological strains were measured by the 60-item Psychological Strain Scales (PSS). We hypothesized that college students with higher scores of strains would report greater levels of depression and also demonstrate greater suicidal ideation. Findings suggested that aspiration strain and coping strain were positively associated with depression while value strain and coping strain were significantly correlated with suicidal ideation.