The Incremental Utility of Emotion Regulation But Not Emotion Reactivity in Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury

This study assessed the incremental utility of emotion reactivity and emotion regulation in relation to nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI). Participants included 379 college students aged 18–22 who completed self‐report measures of emotion regulation, emotion reactivity, and NSSI. Emotion regulation was significantly related to NSSI both ignoring and controlling for reactivity, but the reverse was not true. Participants' use of NSSI for affect regulation appeared to moderate this relation. Findings support emotion regulation deficits as a target for intervention over and above heightened emotion reactivity, especially in those who use NSSI to regulate negative affect.     

In Eating‐Disordered Inpatient Adolescents,Self‐Criticism Predicts Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury

We examined the role of depressive traits—self‐criticism and dependency—in nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) and suicidal ideation among inpatient adolescents with eating disorders. In two studies (N = 103 and 55), inpatients were assessed for depressive traits, suicidal ideations, and NSSI. In Study 2, motivation for carrying out NSSI was also assessed. In both studies, depression predicted suicidal ideation and self‐criticism predicted NSSI. In Study 2, depression and suicidal ideation also predicted NSSI. The automatic positive motivation for NSSI was predicted by dependency and depressive symptoms, and by a two‐way interaction between self‐criticism and dependency. Consistent with the “self‐punishment model,” self‐criticism appears to constitute a dimension of vulnerability for NSSI.     

Suicidality Among Chronically Homeless People with Alcohol Problems Attenuates Following Exposure to Housing First

This study is the first to document suicidality among chronically homeless people with alcohol problems (N = 134) and examine its trajectory following exposure to immediate, permanent, low‐barrier housing (i.e., Housing First). Suicidal ideation, intent, plans, and prior attempts were assessed at baseline and during a 2‐year follow‐up. Baseline suicidal ideation was over four times higher than in the general population. Two‐year, within‐subjects, longitudinal analyses indicated severity of suicidal ideation decreased by 43% from baseline to follow‐up. Significant decreases were also found for intent and clinical significance of ideation. No participants died by suicide during the 2‐year follow‐up.     

Family‐Based Preventive Interventions: Can the Onset of Suicidal Ideation and Behavior Be Prevented?

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth aged 10–24. Research informed prevention efforts have the opportunity to decrease risk for suicidal ideation and behavior before it is manifested. Indeed, there is a small body of research findings demonstrating both proximal and distal effects of preventive interventions delivered in childhood and adolescence on suicidal ideation and/or behavior. These efforts build off of other secondary analyses of prevention research that has demonstrated benefits for multiple types of youth outcomes. This supplement provides “proof of concept” that family‐based preventive interventions aimed at reducing a number of risk factors for suicide (e.g., substance use, externalizing, and internalizing behavior) can prevent suicidal ideation and behaviors.     

The Effects of the Family Bereavement Program to Reduce Suicide Ideation and/or Attempts of Parentally Bereaved Children Six and Fifteen Years Later

Findings concerning the long‐term effects of the Family Bereavement Program (FBP) to reduce suicide ideation and/or attempts of parentally bereaved children and adolescents are presented. Parental death is a significant risk factor for suicide among offspring (Guldin et al., 2015). This study is a long‐term follow‐up of 244 children and adolescents who had participated in a randomized trial of the FBP, examining the intervention effects on suicide ideation and/or attempts as assessed through multiple sources. Results indicate a significant effect of the FBP to reduce suicide ideation and/or attempts at the 6‐ and 15‐year follow‐up evaluation. The findings support the potential benefits of further research on “upstream” suicide prevention.     

Have Mental Health Education Programs Influenced the Mental Health Literacy of Those with Major Depression and Suicidal Ideation? A Comparison between 1998 and 2008 in South Australia

Mental health literacy is the knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders that aid their recognition, management, or prevention and is considered to be an important determinant of help‐seeking. This has relevance in suicide prevention, as depression, the clinical condition most frequently associated with suicidality, has been the target of community and professional education programs designed to enhance mental health literacy. In this study, whether such programs have influenced help‐seeking attitudes and behavior in those who are depressed and suicidal was considered. The results indicate that despite intensive community education programs over the last two decades, there has been little change in those who are depressed and suicidal in terms of their attitudes toward treatment seeking and, more importantly, their treatment‐seeking behavior. These results draw into question the value of current community education programs for those most vulnerable to suicidal behavior.     

The Moderating Effect of the Negative Impact of Recent Life Events on the Relation between Intrinsic Religiosity and Death Ideation in Older Adults

Researchers tested the hypothesis that the negative impact of recent life events would moderate the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and death ideation in older adults. Participants (n = 272) completed assessments of death ideation, intrinsic religiosity, and negative impact of recent life events. We confirmed the presence of concurrent moderation and found that older adults with greater negative impact of recent life events and high intrinsic religiosity reported greater death ideation. These relatively surprising findings may be due to reduced fear of death in intrinsically religious older adults, an explanation consistent with previous research.     

Child/Adolescent Abuse and Suicidal Behavior: Are They Sex Related?

The association between childhood and adolescent abuse and suicidal behavior, and the possible contribution of abuse to sex differences in non lethal suicidal behavior, was investigated. Data were extracted from the Israel‐based component of the WHO World Mental Health Survey (Kessler & Utsun, 2008a). Increased risk for ideation, plan, and suicidal attempt were associated with childhood abuse, and increased risk for attempt was associated also with abuse at adolescence. No associations with sex or sex by abuse interactions were observed. The higher frequency of childhood abuse among women could account in part for their higher rates of suicidal attempts as compared to men.     

Music and Suicidality: A Quantitative Review and Extension

This article provides the first quantitative review of the literature on music and suicidality. Multivariate logistic regression techniques are applied to 90 findings from 21 studies. Investigations employing ecological data on suicide completions are 19.2 times more apt than other studies to report a link between music and suicide. More recent and studies with large samples are also more apt than their counterparts to report significant results. Further, none of the studies based on experimental research designs found a link between music and suicide ideation, prompting us to do a brief content analysis of 24 suicide songs versus 24 nonsuicide songs from the same album. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software, we found no difference in the content of the suicide songs and controls, including the percentage of sad words, negative affect, and mentions of death, thus providing an explanation for nonfindings from experimental research. In summary, ecologically based (which capture at‐risk persons not in typical school‐based samples) and more recent investigations (which have used superior or new methodologies) tend to demonstrate a linkage between music and suicidality. Experimental research is needed with a control group of songs from an alternative genre with low suicidogenic content.