Uncovering the mechanism linking education expectation and suicide ideation among students in tertiary education: The mediating role of academic burnout, psychache, and hopelessness

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0337831 December 18, 2025 12 / 16 all models of expectations and samples support the salient effect of psychache in predicting suicidal ideation as postu- lated in the first step of the 3ST [42]. For the third hypothesis, a significant mediating effect of hopelessness was only found in models with the expectation from parents for the Malaysian sample and with the expectation from culture for the Australian sample. Overall, our results suggest that hopelessness does not mediate the relationship between educational expectations and suicide ideation. This is not surprising as studies have suggested that hopelessness is only present upon experiencing an unsatisfactory outcome [57,58]. As such, merely experiencing high expectations without prior experiences of failure is not sufficient to predict hopelessness. Additionally, the significant associations between hopelessness and suicide ideation across all mod- els lend support to the first step of the 3ST [42]. For the fourth and fifth hypotheses, results found evidence for the serial mediating effect of academic burnout through psychache and academic burnout through hopelessness for models with expectations from self and parents across all samples. These findings affirm that academic burnout is not a simple mediator. Our findings suggest that suicide ideation is likely when a student experiences academic burnout that is accompanied by the feeling of intense psychological pain or

a sense of hopelessness. The consistent serial mediating effect across samples also suggests that students universally perceive high expectations from parents as stressful. This challenges the narrative that students from an Asian back- ground are more pressured by their parents than students from a Western background [31,59]. Instead, we argue that the negative impact of high parental expectations on a student’s psychological well-being is not necessarily influenced by ethnicity or culture. A negative effect was found in serial mediation models with self-expectations across samples. This suggests that expectations from self negatively predict academic burnout and subsequently reduce the risk of psychache, hopeless- ness, and suicide ideation. Perceived control over expectations may explain the differences in the serial mediating effect between self-expectation and parental expectation. Self-determination theory [60] suggests that an optimal state of psychological well-being, functioning, and intrinsic motivation is determined by the fulfilment of three basic psychologi- cal needs: connectedness, competence, and control. The sense of control involves having ownership and freedom over choices in life and being guided by personal values or interests [60]. The obstruction of a psychological need and personal goal results in psychache, which is a robust predictor of suicidal ideation [61]. Students with a greater sense of autonomy and self-determination are less likely to report hopelessness and suicidal ideation when faced with negative life events

[62]. Self-expectations reflect a higher degree of autonomy as students can accurately gauge their academic capacity and adjust their goals accordingly, while parental expectations leave a student helpless as they are not able to influence or control these expectations, which can be unrealistic or beyond their ability. This is exemplified in Larcombe et al. [63] who found that students who pursued a law degree out of personal interest had lower depressive symptoms than students who enrolled for other reasons (i.e., parental advice, best option available). The study also noted that enrolling based on ‘personal interest and aptitude’ was protective against depressive symptoms. In sum, students with a greater sense of autonomy are adaptable and able to overcome feelings of being trapped (hopelessness) when faced with challenges in higher education than those with poorer perceived autonomy. The consistency of the negative effect of self-expectation on suicide ideation across samples demonstrates the universal need for autonomy as a precursor of positive psychological well-being in the face of educational expectations. Cross-cultural variations When models for each source of expectations were compared across samples, only the pathway from parental expecta- tion to psychache was significantly different. This suggests that psychache due to parental expectation is likely for Malay- sian students but not for Singaporean and Australian students. The disparity may be explained by Malaysia’s aspiration to

be a developed nation, which may influence many aspects of a student’s academic pursuit. Malaysian students may per- ceive that their parents place significantly greater academic pressure to be more accomplished than parents in Singapore