No description available.

The present study was designed to examine the extent to which perfectionism and social problem solving add to the prediction model of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), independent of suicide risk, in a sample of 386 ethnoracially diverse college students. Moreover, the authors were interested in whether social problem solving, beyond perfectionism, would account for additional variance in their prediction model. Results indicated that social problem solving did account for significant variance in the prediction model of NSSI, above and beyond perfectionism. Moreover, on controlling for suicide risk, a possible confound for NSSI behaviors, social problem solving was found to account for an additional 4.0 percent of unique variance in the prediction of NSSI, beyond that accounted for by perfectionism. The present findings have theoretical implications for the literature on perfectionism and social problem solving, specifically in relation to NSSI. In addition, the present findings have practical implications for social workers who work with college students engaging in NSSI behaviors.

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

A review of the literature strongly suggests that poor family dynamics play a critical role in an adolescent's choice of suicide. This thesis examines the literature and research findings on adolescent suicide and family functioning. It will bring together recent findings to help professionals access the information on adolescent suicide as it relates to the family. The psychosocial and cognitive theories of development are explored to provide a framework for understanding adolescents and the reasons for the choices and problem solving they make in their quest for identity. Since social workers are increasingly implicated in the prevention of youth suicide, the thesis applies the argument to prevention from a social work perspective.

Suicide is a prevalent and international problem which has substantive economic and psychological consequences. This has led to governments placing prevention of suicide as a priority on healthcare agendas. Recognition has been given to vulnerable groups in society that have been identified as being at particularly high risk of self-harm and suicide. This includes those in contact with mental health and forensic services. There is a great deal of literature that has considered the risk factors, processes and mechanisms associated with suicide. Comparatively only a small amount of literature has looked at the concept of suicidality within restricted samples such as psychiatric inpatients and prisoners. This may be as a consequence of extensive ethical and procedural processes that are involved in conducting research in such settings. This results in it being necessary to continually make generalisations from community based literature, meaning that factors relating specifically to such settings may be overlooked or underestimated. In the first paper, the initial sections consider existing risk assessments and models of suicidality. Predominantly being structured around static risk factors, means they are often criticised for lacking predictive utility and specificity. Literature examining dynamic psychosocial factors of suicidality in restricted samples was reviewed and 20 articles were identified. A wide range of dynamic correlates are presented. These form a theoretical model of suicidality specific to restricted samples. The clinical and theoretical implications are discussed in terms of risk assessment procedures and adapting and shaping interventions in accordance with the findings. Developing risk assessments around more dynamic factors will allow for greater sensitivity and prediction of those at greatest risk of imminent harm. The second, empirical paper supports the promotion of recovery focused practice and explores the relationship between suicidality and perceived personal agency in patients in secure mental health settings; Personal agency having previously been suggested as conferring resilience to suicidality. Psychometric measures and experience sampling methodology were utilised to examine the relationship. Perceptions of personal agency were found to confer resilience against suicidality. Change in perceptions of personal agency was not associated with suicidality but the overall level of personal agency was. Implications for service delivery are discussed with emphasis given to fostering perceptions of agency, control and self-efficacy and promoting inclusion, empowerment and person centred care. The final paper provides a personal and a critical reflection on the research process. It highlights and discusses clinical and theoretical strengths and limitations of the two papers and considers the methodological processes of both papers in more detail. Further reflections on how practice could be adapted in line with the findings are given. Future directions for research within secure settings are considered, in the hope of maintaining the drive for research with this vulnerable and often overlooked population.

In the United States, approximately 45,000 persons die by suicide annually. Members of the LGBTQ community experience heightened suicide risk; for example, suicide attempts are four times higher among gay and bisexual men, and twice as common in lesbian and bisexual women, compared to heterosexual counterparts. Experiences of stigma and discrimination may constrict one’s view of a positive future (e.g., hopelessness), thereby contributing to the development of psychache, or unbearable psychological pain and negative emotionality, and heightened risk for suicide. However, individual-level resiliency traits, such as a positive view of the future (e.g., future orientation) may contribute to reduced levels of psychological pain and suicidality. That is, whereas future orientation may ameliorate psychological pain and suicide risk, hopelessness may exacerbate such risks; yet, a comparison of the effects of these temporal constructs on psychache has not been previously examined in an LGBTQ sample. At the bivariate level, we hypothesized that hopelessness would be positively related to psychache and suicide risk, and that psychache would be positively related to suicide risk. In addition, we hypothesized that future orientation would be negatively related to hopelessness, psychache and suicide risk. At the multivariate level, we hypothesized that psychache would mediate the associations between hopelessness and suicide risk, and between positive future orientation and suicide risk. In other words, greater positive future orientation would be associated with less psychache and, in turn, to reduced suicide risk, and greater hopelessness would be linked to more psychache and suicide risk. Recruited locally, nationally, and internationally from advocacy organizations and support groups, our sample of LGBTQ individuals (N = 496) was primarily White (81.7%; n = 365), female (44.8%; n = 201), and either lesbian or gay (46.8%, n = 209). Participants completed online self-report measures, including: Beck Hopelessness Scale, Future Orientation Scale, Psychache Scale, and the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised. Bivariate correlations, and multivariate analyses per Hayes (2013), were conducted, covarying age, birth sex, and race/ethnicity. In bivariate correlations, all variables were significantly related in hypothesized directions (p < .01). In serial mediation analyses, the total effect of future orientation on suicide risk was significant (t = -2.17, p < .05), and the direct effect was nonsignificant when psychache was added to the model (t = -.879, p = .381), indicating mediation. In the second model, psychache mediated the relation between hopefulness and suicide risk; the total effect was significant (t = 3.56, p < .05), and the direct effect was nonsignificant (t = 1.35, p = .181). Supporting hypotheses, our results suggest that LGBTQ individuals with a positive future orientation experience less psychache and, in turn, reduced suicide risk. On the other hand, LGBTQ persons with greater hopelessness experience greater psychache and, in turn, greater suicide risk. Therapeutic interventions designed to encourage an adaptive, positive view of the future (e.g. Future Directed Therapy), rather than a hopeless view of the future, may help to counteract the often-present stressors and distress experienced by LGBTQ persons, thereby ameliorating suicide risk.

Background: Transitioning to college life in young adulthood can represent a challenging developmental period and college students are at heightened risk for engaging in suicidality. Aims: We aimed to investigate the roles dispositional optimism and coping strategies play in suicide risk (viz., suicidality) and suicide protection (viz., reasons for living) in college students. Method: A sample of 252 American college students were surveyed using anonymous questionnaires and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to analyze the data. Results: Coping strategies, as a set, played an important role in both suicidality and reasons for living, after controlling for demographic factors (age and sex). When dispositional optimism was entered into the model, it was found to account for a significant amount of additional unique variance in both suicidality and reasons for living, even after accounting for coping. Limitations: It is unknown whether optimism remains meaningful in its association with suicide risk and protection beyond coping in other populations. Conclusion: Effective coping and optimism are associated with decreased suicide risk and increased suicide protection. Our findings point to the consistent role of dispositional optimism, over coping, in both suicide risk and protection.

No description available.

No description available.

Veterans in America are at 22% increased risk for suicide compared to the general population, perhaps due to military experiences (e.g., killing another person) that contribute to maladaptive cognitive-emotional functioning, including feelings of self-blame. A lack of self-forgiveness may maintain feelings of shame, conceptualized as humiliation or distress following perception of having behaved wrongly, which may, further, deleteriously impact interpersonal functioning, increasing suicide risk. Shame may lead an individual to withdraw from others, resulting in thwarted belongingness (i.e., a perception of a lack of membership with a group), and may contribute to feeling like a burden (i.e., a perception of being taxing or restrictive to others), both of which are known predictors of suicide. The ability to forgive the self, however, may reduce feelings of shame and, in turn, improve interpersonal functioning and suicide risk; yet, this model has not been previously tested. At the bivariate level, we hypothesized that shame, perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and suicide risk would all be positively related, and that they would all be inversely related to self-forgiveness. At the multivariate level, we tested two serial mediation models, hypothesizing that the relation between self-forgiveness and suicide risk would be mediated by shame (1st order) and perceived burdensomeness/thwarted belongingness (2nd order), such that lower levels of self-forgiveness would be associated with greater perceptions of shame and, in turn, to greater perceptions of burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, and consequent greater suicide risk. Participants (N=551; Mean Age=50.4, SD=16.6) were recruited via online invitations distributed to veteran social media groups and were predominantly male (n=382, 69.3%) and White (n=469, 85.1%). Participants completed Fetzer’s Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness and Spirituality (BMMRS), the Differential Emotions Scale (DES-IV), the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ), and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire – Revised (SBQR). Bivariate correlations and multivariate analyses were conducted via the SPSS PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2013), covarying age, race, and sex, and utilizing a 10,000 bootstrapping sample. All bivariate hypotheses were supported at the pβ=.102, p=.437) when shame and perceived burdensomeness were added to the model (β=.642, pβ=.048, p=.733) when shame and thwarted belongingness were added to the model (β=.630, p