Interpersonal Theory Of Suicide

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Suicide is the third leading cause of death for persons ages 10 to 24 years old (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013). Risk factors for suicide, particularly interpersonal violence and alcohol use, are alarmingly prevalent in this population (Bagge & Sher, 2008; Wolford-Clevenger & P. Smith, 2014). However, understanding of the mechanisms through which these factors promote suicide risk in young adults is limited. Research that organizes these risk factors into a parsimonious understanding of the mechanisms underlying suicide is imperative to prevent this cause of death in such a vulnerable population.
The interpersonal theory of suicide (Joiner, 2005; Van Orden et al., 2010) may serve as a framework to understand these risk …show more content…

In the first step, gender was associated with fearlessness about death (β = −.25, t = 5.10, p < .001), such that male gender was associated with increases in fearlessness about death. In the second step, gender (β = −.27, t = 5.40, p < .001) and alcohol use (β = −.10, t = −2.03, p = . 043) were associated with fearlessness about death, such that being male and lower alcohol use were associated with increases in fearlessness about death. However, the second step did not contribute significant variance beyond step 1 (p = .23). Further, these variables explained only a very small percentage of the variance in fearlessness about …show more content…

The few associations that emerged between suicide risk factors and ACS were weak and were accounted for by well-established risk factors for suicide: male gender and history of suicide attempts/NSSI. These findings converge with work highlighting male gender and history of suicidal behavior as key risk factors for the development of ACS but also provide tentative evidence against interpersonal violence and alcohol use as correlates of ACS.
General physical violence perpetration was bivariately, positively correlated with fearlessness about death, which supports prior research showing that physically aggressive experiences, such as combat exposure, are associated with increases in fearlessness about death (Bryan & Cukrowicz, 2011). However, physical violence perpetration was not associated with increases in general fearlessness/pain tolerance, which is inconsistent with experimental evidence that physical aggression committed through violent video games increases physical pain tolerance (Teismann et al., 2014). While this is one of the few tests of a correlation between physical violence perpetration and fearlessness about death, this association was not present in multivariate models. Furthermore, this study cannot determine whether engagement in physical violence increases fearlessness about death or fearlessness about death

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