Relationship between social support, meaning in life, depression and suicide behaviour among medical students

There is robust evidence supporting the protective effect of social support from negative psychological consequences, but the mechanism through which social support performs this function is not clear. The present study explored the mediating role of meaning in life (presence of meaning in life: PML, and search for meaning in life: SML) in the relationship between social support, depression, and suicide behaviour among undergraduate medical students. Using a cross-sectional design, undergraduate medical students (N = 240, M age = 22.38, SD = 2.16) were randomly selected from the faculty of medical sciences, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus. Participants completed relevant measures. Results indicated that social support was negatively associated with depression (B = − 0.20, p = .002), and suicide behaviour (B = − 0.05, p = .004). PML mediated the association between social support and depression [95CI: − 0.12, − 0.03], and the association between social support and suicide behaviour [95%CI: 0.12, 0.04]. The mediating role of SML on the association between social support and depression [95%CI: − 0.04, 0.01], and between social support and suicide behaviour [95%CI: − 0.06, 0.01] were not significant. The findings of this study suggest that the presence of meaning in life is the pathway through which social support alleviates depressive symptoms, and suicide behavioral tendencies, and could therefore serve as an intervention target to decrease such negative psychological outcomes in medical students.