causal relationship of social health and meaning in life with suicidal thoughts in iranian adolescents mediated by perceived social support

Objective: the present study was conducted to explain the causal relationship between social health and finding meaning in life with suicidal thoughts in adolescents living in welfare organizations by evaluating the mediating role of perceived social support (pss). methods: the sample included 320 adolescents covered by tehran’s state welfare organization (swo), who were selected by multistage cluster sampling and participated in the research. the current study was descriptive and correlational (using structural equation modeling [sem]). the data were collected using the social health questionnaire, the meaning in life questionnaire (mlq), and the multidimensional scale of pss (mspss) and were analyzed using spss software, version 22 and amos software, version 24.results: the direct path coefficient (pc) of social health (β=0.478, p>0.01), finding meaning in life (β=0.311, p>0.01), and pss (β=0.427, p>0.01) with suicidal thoughts was negative and significant. the indirect path coefficient (pc) between social health (β=0.192, p=0.001) and finding meaning in life (β=0.111, p=0.001) with suicidal thoughts were negative and significant. conclusion: the structural model of the research was the same in terms of fit with the data of two groups of girls and boys. adolescents covered by the swo are more vulnerable to suicide due to their special experiences. the meaning of life and social connections can reduce suicidal thoughts in adolescents and act as protective factors.