This study examined loneliness and future orientation as predictors of suicidal risk, namely, depressive symptoms and suicide ideation, in a sample of 228 college students (54 males and 174 females). Results of regression analyses indicated that loneliness was a significant predictor of both indices of suicidal risk. The inclusion of future orientation was found to significantly augment the prediction model of both depressive symptoms and suicide ideation, even after accounting for loneliness. Noteworthy, beyond loneliness and future orientation, the Loneliness × Future Orientation interaction term was found to further augment both prediction models of suicidal risk. Consistent with the notion that future orientation is an important buffer of suicidal risk, among lonely students, those with high future orientation, compared to low future orientation, were found to report significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms and suicide ideation. Some implications of the present findings for studying both risk and protective factors associated with suicidal risk in young adults are discussed.

Anger is often associated with poor physical and mental health, including suicidal behaviour. Anger expression is typically conceptualised as inward or outward-directed, with each mode of expression having potentially different aetiologies and health manifestations. Individual characteristics such as religion or spirituality may buffer against the effects of anger. One such characteristic, forgiveness, is the voluntary process of changing ones’ beliefs, behaviours, and emotions towards a transgressor from negative to positive. We examined forgiveness of self, forgiveness of others and feeling forgiven by God as moderators of the relationship between anger expression and suicidal behaviours in a sample of 372 ethnically diverse college students. In independent and full models, we found that forgiveness of self was a significant moderator of the association between inward and outward anger and suicidal behaviour. Interventions targeting anger via the promotion of forgiveness may be useful in the prevention of suicide ideation and attempts.

Objective: Depression is a significant global public health burden, and older adults may be particularly vulnerable to its effects. Among other risk factors, interpersonal conflicts, such as perceived criticism from family members, can increase risk for depressive symptoms in this population. We examined family criticism as a predictor of depressive symptoms and the potential moderating effect of optimism and pessimism. Methods: One hundred five older adult, primary care patients completed self-report measures of family criticism, optimism and pessimism, and symptoms of depression. We hypothesized that optimism and pessimism would moderate the relationship between family criticism and depressive symptoms. Results: In support of our hypothesis, those with greater optimism and less pessimism reported fewer depressive symptoms associated with family criticism. Conclusion: Therapeutic enhancement of optimism and amelioration of pessimism may buffer against depression in patients experiencing familial criticism.

The present study sought to examine for how hope and sexual assault are involved in suicidal risk in a sample of 325 college students. Specifically, we were interested to examine whether sexual assault may play an additive as well as interactive role in the prediction of suicidal risk (viz., suicidal behaviors & reasons for living) above and beyond hope. Results from regression analyses indicated that hope and sexual assault were important and unique predictors of suicidal risk in students. Moreover, we found some support for a Hope × Sexual Assault interaction in predicting both suicidal behaviors and reasons for living. However, only the findings for suicidal behaviors remained after controlling for concurrent depressive symptomatology. Some important implications of the present findings are discussed.

BACKGROUND: Suicide rates are higher in veterans compared to the general population, perhaps due to trauma exposure. Previous literature highlights depressive symptoms and anger as contributors to suicide risk. PTSD symptoms may indirectly affect suicide risk by increasing the severity of such cognitive-emotional factors. METHOD: A sample of community dwelling veterans (N=545) completed online surveys, including the PTSD Checklist-Military Version, Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised, Multidimensional Health Profile-Psychosocial Functioning, and Differential Emotions Scale -IV. Bivariate and serial mediation analyses were conducted to test for direct and indirect effects of PTSD symptoms on suicide risk. RESULTS: In bivariate analyses, PTSD symptoms, depression, anger, and internal hostility were positively related to suicide risk. In serial mediation analyses, there was a significant total effect of PTSD symptoms on suicide risk in both models. PTSD symptoms were also indirectly related to suicidal behavior via depression and internal hostility, and via internal hostility alone. Anger was not a significant mediator. LIMITATION: Our cross-sectional sample was predominantly White and male; prospective studies with diverse veterans are needed. DISCUSSION: Our findings may have implications for veteran suicide prevention. The effects of PTSD and depression on anger, particularly internal hostility, are related to suicide risk, suggesting a potential mechanism of action for the PTSD-suicide linkage. A multi-faceted therapeutic approach, targeting depression and internal hostility, via cognitive-behavioral techniques such as behavioral activation and cognitive restructuring, may reduce suicide risk in veterans who have experienced trauma.

No description available.

Research is burgeoning regarding the beneficial association of forgiveness with numerous health-related outcomes; however, its particular relationship to suicidal behavior has received relatively little attention. Both cynicism and psychache, or agonizing psychological pain, have displayed deleterious associations with suicidal behavior, but have rarely been incorporated into more comprehensive models of suicidal behavior. Consistent with the recent development of a theoretical model regarding the forgiveness–suicidal behavior association, the present study utilized an undergraduate sample of college students (N = 312) to test a mediation-based model of the cross-sectional association of forgiveness with suicidal behavior, as serially mediated by cynicism and psychache. Dispositional forgiveness of self and forgiveness of uncontrollable situations were each indirectly associated with less suicidal behavior via less psychache. Also, dispositional forgiveness of others was indirectly associated with less suicidal behavior via less cynicism and less psychache, in a serial fashion. The present results are consistent with the extent literature on the forgiveness–suicidal behavior association, cynicism, and psychache, and pending future studies, may be utilized to inform further treatment efforts for individuals at a high risk of attempting suicide.

Background: The psychosocial benefits of participating in physical activity (PA) are well known; less is known about the relationship between suicidal behaviors and PA among adolescents, especially among middle school-aged youth. This study seeks to fill that gap by assessing the cross-sectional relationship between these variables. Methods: A secondary analysis of the 2010 Tennessee Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey data was conducted among 65,182 middle school students. Items examined were PA, sports team engagement, physical education (PE) class, screen time, suicidal behaviors, drug/substance use, extreme weight control behaviors, weight status and weight misperceptions, and selected personal characteristics. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the association between PA, sports team engagement, and PE class attendance on suicidal behaviors. Results: Sports team engagement was significantly associated with suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts even after controlling for other important variables. There was no relationship, however, between total PA or PE class attendance in univariate or multivariate models, respectively. Conclusions: Findings suggest that sports team engagement is associated with reduced risk for suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts, whereas, no relationships were found for PA or PE class attendance. Asking adolescents questions about sports team engagement may help clinicians screen for risk of suicidal behaviors.

The Stress and Coping Cyclical Amplification Model of Perfectionism in Illness posits, that in the context of a chronic illness, both perfectionistic strivings and concerns contribute to poor health outcomes. Similarly, person-centred models, such as the tripartite model of perfectionism, claim that high levels of both perfectionism concerns and strivings reflect an “unhealthy” perfectionism that takes a toll on well-being. To date there are few comparative tests of these models for physical and mental health outcomes in healthy versus chronically ill individuals. The aim of the current study was to investigate the implications of perfectionism for health by testing how within-person combinations of perfectionism varied in relation to health outcomes, and between fibromyalgia patients (n = 89) and healthy controls (n = 123). Supporting both models, within-person combinations of high perfectionistic strivings and concerns were associated with high stress and poor mental and physical health compared to other within-person combinations. These links were more robust for fibromyalgia patients compared to controls, and stress mediated the association with physical health outcomes only for the fibromyalgia patients. Findings support the value of taking a person-centred approach for understanding how perfectionistic strivings contributes to poor health in the context of chronic illness.

Forgiveness, a cognitive-emotional and behavioral reduction of negative responses to offenses, is directly related to less suicide risk, but may be indirectly related via its relation with future orientation, the ability to envision a positive future. In 100 rural primary care patients, we examined the association between self-forgiveness, other-forgiveness, and forgiveness by God and suicidal behavior, with future orientation as a mediator. Forgiveness was related to greater future orientation and, in turn, to, less suicidal behavior. Addressing the past may promote adaptive views of the future and reduce suicide risk, results suggesting potential temporal and forgiveness-based points for suicide prevention.