Stress, coping styles, and hopelessness in self-poisoners

Examining the Moderating Effect of Mindfulness on the Relationship between Soldiers’ Perceived Stress and Hopelessness

Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which one consciously pays attention to being fully present in the moment. Research has shown that mindfulness can lower anxiety, stress, and hopelessness. This fact may also apply to people in special circumstances, such as those in the military. Therefore, we examined the relationship between perceived stress, mindfulness, and hopelessness among military soldiers. Specifically, we verified the moderating effect of mindfulness on the relationship between perceived stress and mindfulness. We surveyed 309 Korean military soldiers and a total of 257 data were analyzed through descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis. Our results showed that perceived stress, mindfulness, and hopelessness are interrelated, and that mindfulness moderated the influence of perceived stress on hopelessness. In other words, the lower the level of mindfulness, the greater the hopelessness when the perceived stress increased. This study suggests that conducting mindfulness training for soldiers can benefit soldiers’ adaptation to military life.

Worldviews and Individual Vulnerability to Suicide: The Role of Social Axioms

Research investigating the role of generalized beliefs about the world or worldviews is relatively scarce in the suicide literature. Two studies, using Hong Kong Chinese samples, examined how worldviews, as assessed by the Social Axioms Survey (SAS), were linked with individual vulnerability to suicide. In Study 1, we investigated the relationships of social axioms with various suicide indicators in cognitive, emotional and interpersonal domains, viz., suicidal ideation, negative self–esteem, psychache, burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness. Results from canonical correlation analysis showed that beliefs along the axiom dimensions of social cynicism, reward for application, and social complexity were linked to these suicide indicators. In Study 2, we tested the interplay of worldviews and personality traits in the prediction of suicidal thoughts. Hierarchical regression results demonstrated the predictive power of social axioms over and above that provided by the Big Five personality dimensions. Moreover, a significant interaction was observed between belief in reward for application and negative life events in predicting suicidal ideation, showing that reward for application buffered the effect of negative life events on suicidal ideation. Based on these results, we discussed the significance of worldviews as a consideration in suicide research and their implications for clinical assessment and intervention. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Individual and social factors related to attempted suicide among women: A qualitative study from Iran

The researchers conducted this study as a phenomenological research to understand the individual and social factors related to attempted suicide phenomenon among women of Gilan-e Gharb. Participants of the study are comprised of 17 women survivors of attempted suicide selected by purposive sampling or snowball method. To gather the data, we conducted semi-structured interviews in face-to-face and audio-recorded methods from February to April 2017. Researchers transcribed verbatim and analyzed the content of the interviews thematically. The main issues in this study were three main themes including the "personal factors", "social factors", and "other issues related to attempted suicide" with seven sub-themes. We concluded that both personal and social factors contribute to the suicide attempts in female subjects. Also, we found that the majority of participants did not want to die by the attempted suicide.

Relations between hopelessness, depressive symptoms and suicidality: mediation by reasons for living

OBJECTIVE

The present study examined whether reasons for living (RFL) would partially account for the associations between traditional risk factors (depressive symptoms, hopelessness) and suicidal ideation and attempts.

METHOD

Data were collected from 1,075 undergraduate college students who completed a battery of online assessments.

RESULTS

Results from a series of simultaneous mediational models indicated that the relations between risk factors and current suicidal ideation were partially mediated by total RFL (and Coping Beliefs and Self-Evaluation subscales). Further, total RFL (and the Coping Beliefs subscale) fully mediated the relation between hopelessness and past-year suicide attempt, and partially mediated the depressive symptoms-suicide attempt relation.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates the importance of assessing for the presence of these suicide risk and protective factors. Implications for the improved identification and treatment of young adults at risk for suicide are discussed.