We examined two structural equation models of international students’ suicidal ideation using data from 595 international students in two public universities in the United States. The models represented competing hypotheses about the relationships among discrimination, cross-cultural loss, academic distress, thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and suicidal ideation. The findings indicated there were direct, positive links between discrimination, cross-cultural loss, and academic distress to perceived burdensomeness; a direct, positive link between perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation; and indirect, positive links between discrimination, cross-cultural loss, and academic distress to suicidal ideation via perceived burdensomeness. The only predictors that related to thwarted belongingness were cross-cultural loss and academic distress, and there were no indirect links to suicidal ideation via thwarted belongingness. In fact, with all other variables in the model, thwarted belongingness was unrelated to suicidal ideation. Finally, academic distress was directly related to suicidal ideation. We discuss implications of the findings.
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