Reasons for Living and Suicide Attempts Among Young Adults With Lifetime Suicide Ideation

Suicide decision-making: Differences in proximal considerations between individuals who aborted and attempted suicide

INTRODUCTION

The transition from suicidal thoughts to behaviors often involves considering the consequences of suicide as part of the decision-making process. This study explored the relationship between this consideration process and the decision to either abort or carry out a suicide attempt.

METHODS

Among inpatients with a suicide-related event in the past 2 weeks (suicide attempt n = 30 or aborted attempt n = 16), we assessed the degree to which they considered six domains of consequences, the impact of these considerations on their inclination to attempt suicide, and the duration of their decision-making.

RESULTS

All the participants who aborted and 87% of those who attempted considered consequences of suicide. Participants who aborted took longer to progress through decision-making stages and considered more suicide-hindering factors, especially interpersonal ones, though these differences were no longer significant after correction. Group status moderated the relationship between the balance of suicide-facilitating and suicide-hindering considerations and decision-making duration. Considering the consequences of suicide more favorably was related to a shorter ideation-to-action period before a suicide attempt and a longer ideation period before aborting an attempt.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the complexity of suicide decision-making and its role in better understanding the progression from ideation to action.

A mixed methods study of suicide protective factors in college students

INTRODUCTION

Mental health professionals, teachers, families, and public administrators are concerned about suicide rates among young people, particularly in the university context. For every ten college students worldwide, three attempt suicide in their lifetime, and two experience suicidal ideation. Reducing these rates requires interventions that recognize the problem in terms of risk factors and protective factors.

OBJECTIVE

The general aim of the study was to map the protective factors for suicide among college students, as perceived by them, mental health professionals, and coordinators of undergraduate courses in a public university in the North of Brazil.

METHODS

The study followed an exploratory, mixed-method design. Data were collected through interviews and the application of a questionnaire with 54 participants, including college students (n = 20), mental health professionals (n = 22), and course coordinators (n = 12). Data were analyzed using Content Analysis and simple descriptive statistics.

RESULTS

The findings show that the protective factors for suicide most cited among the three groups were social support, strengthening of internal resources, institutional support, and finding meaning about the change to enter the university. Although the three audiences did not converge, the protective factors also frequently reported were psychological treatment, leisure activities, religious engagement, medical treatment, civic engagement, employability, opportunities for social ascension offered by the university, and quality family relationships.

CONCLUSION

It is suggested that these protective factors are considered when formulating policies to promote mental health and suicide prevention in the university environment.

Factors Associated With Reasons for Living Among Suicidal Adolescents

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to identify baseline demographic and clinical factors associated with higher scores on the Reasons for Living Inventory for Adolescents (RFL-A) at baseline and over follow-up.

METHOD

Using data from a pilot clinical trial of a brief intervention for suicidal youth transitioning from inpatient to outpatient, we identified univariate associations of baseline characteristics with RFL-A and used regression to identify the most parsimonious subset of these variables. Finally, we examined to what extent changes in these characteristics over time were related to changes in RFL-A.

RESULTS

Univariate analyses found that better external functional emotion regulation and social support were associated with higher RFL-A scores; more self-reported depression, internal dysfunctional emotion regulation, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and distress tolerance were associated with lower RFL-A scores. Multiple linear regression identified internal dysfunctional emotion regulation and external functional emotion regulation as the most parsimonious set of characteristics associated with RFL-A. Improvement in internal emotion regulation, sleep, and depression were related to improvements in RFL-A over time.

CONCLUSION

Our findings indicate that emotion regulation-specifically maladaptive internal strategies and use of external resources-is strongly associated with RFL-A. Improvements in internal emotion regulation (r = 0.57), sleep (r = -0.45), and depression (r = -0.34) were related to increases in RFL-A.