Lack of Emotional Awareness is Associated with Thwarted Belongingness and Acquired Capability for Suicide in a Military Psychiatric Inpatient Sample

Childhood Maltreatment and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Young Adults

Background: Childhood maltreatment strongly predicts suicidality in young adulthood, which is increasingly common among Latina/o and Asian Americans. However, greater attention to modifiable explanatory factors is needed, particularly in ethnically minoritized populations. Aims: The current study evaluated whether the association between childhood maltreatment and suicidality may be accounted for by emotion regulation difficulties among a sample of young adults attending a large, minority-serving state university. Methods: Young adults (n = 853 participants; Mage = 22.43 years; 76.2% female) completed validated measures of suicidality, childhood maltreatment, depression, and emotion regulation difficulties. A multiple indirect effect analysis was conducted in a structural equation modeling framework. Results: Greater childhood maltreatment was associated with significantly greater emotion regulation difficulties across all six types and greater endorsement of overall suicidality. An indirect effect was found for limited access to regulation strategies only. Unexpectedly, lack of emotional awareness was associated with lower levels of ideation/attempts or threats of engaging in suicidal behavior. Limitations: The study was cross-sectional, precluding conclusions regarding causality. Conclusions: The findings suggest that, for individuals who have experienced childhood maltreatment, it is particularly important to address deficits in access to emotion regulation strategies to reduce the risk of suicidal ideation and behavior.

Suicidal ideation among men during COVID-19: Examining the roles of loneliness, thwarted belongingness, and personality impairment

Suicidal ideation (SI) is a known precursor to suicide among men. While loneliness and thwarted belongingness (TB) have been identified as key factors influencing SI, no study has reported on all three constructs to investigate whether loneliness is associated with SI by way of TB. Furthermore, it is not clear whether personality impairment has a moderating role on this process. The present study examined the impact of loneliness on SI among men and whether TB mediated this relationship. Additionally, the study investigated whether personality impairment (i.e., self-functioning, interpersonal functioning) moderated the relationship between loneliness and TB. Canadian men (N = 434) completed an online survey that included self-report assessments of the study constructs. Conditional process modeling was used to test the indirect effect of loneliness on SI via the mediating effect of TB. Findings indicated a significant association between loneliness and SI that was mediated by TB. Further, impairment in self-functioning moderated the relationship between loneliness and TB, indicating that the relationship was stronger among men with greater difficulties in self-functioning. The findings are important to consider within the COVID-19 context, as they point to the need to reduce the detrimental impacts of loneliness, thereby potentially mitigating male SI.

The Frequency and Subjective Impact of Painful and Provocative Events on the Acquired Capability for Suicide

BACKGROUND

Leading theoretical explanations for suicide state that for suicide death to occur, a person must have sufficient capability to enact an attempt. Exposure to painful and provocative events is hypothesized to play an important role in acquiring the capability for suicide over a lifetime. Unfortunately, assessment tools for painful and provocative events have focused solely on the frequency of events, neglecting the potential contributions of perceived impact. Further, past measurements have used predetermined items for painful and provocative events thereby neglecting other relevant events. The current study uses visual analog scales (VAS) to assess both the frequency and impact of painful and provocative events and how these contribute to the capability for suicide.

METHOD

Data were collected from 787 adults via Amazon's online platform.

RESULTS

Findings indicated that the frequency VAS and impact VAS both had a moderate correlation with the original Painful and Provocative Events Scale. Greater scores on the frequency VAS were associated with increased capability, whereas lower scores on the subjective impact VAS were associated with increased capability scores. Both VAS independently predicted capability above and beyond the PPES.

LIMITATIONS

Temporal or causal associations are unable to be drawn due to cross-sectional data. In addition, the sample was largely homogenous (White = 72%, female = 63.5%), limiting generalizability.

CONCLUSIONS

These initial findings demonstrate individuals who perceive painful and provocative events as being less impactful may have increased capability, and that VAS may be appropriate to approximate the impact and frequency of painful and provocative events.