@Article{jpa.2025.068039,
AUTHOR = {Wenqin Chen, Yuting Wen, Chen Hong, Nan Ma, Wenting Yi, Guiliang Peng, Yanyan Hu, Yang He},
TITLE = {Psychache and suicidal ideation among firefighters: The chain mediation effect of hopelessness and nostalgia},
JOURNAL = {Journal of Psychology in Africa},
VOLUME = {35},
YEAR = {2025},
NUMBER = {3},
PAGES = {419--427},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/jpa/v35n3/63335},
ISSN = {1815-5626},
ABSTRACT = {This study tested a chain mediation model on whether hopelessness and nostalgia play a mediating role in psychache and suicidal ideation of firefighters. A total of 652 firefighters participated in the survey (male = 94.94%; mean age = 23.71 years, SD = 4.18 years). The firefighters completed the Chinese Revised Psychache Scale (PAS), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Southampton Nostalgia Scale (SNS), and Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS). The path analysis results indicated that psychache positively predicted suicidal ideation. Hopelessness plays a significant mediating role between psychache and suicidal ideation further strengthening this relationship. In contrast, nostalgia mediates and weakened the relationship between psychache and suicidal ideation. Hopelessness and nostalgia jointly constructed a chain mediating effect between psychache and suicidal ideation, for higher suicidal ideation with higher hopelessness and lower nostalgia. The findings align with the Three-Step Theory of Suicide, which proposes that suicidal ideation results from the combination of pain and hopelessness and that connectedness is a key protective factor against escalating ideation. Therefore, interventions to reduce suicidal ideation in firefighters should aim to enhance their nostalgia, while reducing sense of hopelessness.},
DOI = {10.32604/jpa.2025.068039}
}