Reliability and Validation of the Hebrew Version of the Reasons for Attempting Suicide Questionnaire (RASQ‐H) and its Importance for Mental Pain

This study evaluated the Hebrew Reasons for Attempting Suicide Questionnaire (RASQ‐H) and its application for suicidality, and mental pain and its tolerance. The sample comprised 97 participants who were inpatient suicide attempters, inpatient nonattempters, or nonpatient controls. Differentiation of the RASQ into internal perturbation‐based reasons and extrapunitive/manipulative motivations factors was confirmed, with each scale demonstrating strong internal reliability. While the internal perturbation‐based reasons factor related positively to some suicidal manifestations, to mental pain, and to lower mental pain tolerance, the extrapunitive/manipulative motivations factor mostly associated with lower suicidality and had fewer and smaller associations with mental pain and its tolerance.     

Multidimensional Future Time Perspective as Moderators of the Relationships between Suicide Motivation,Preparation, and Its Predictors

The moderating impact of future time perspective (FTP) components on the relationships of hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and psychache with suicide motivation and preparation was investigated. In a sample of first year college students (N = 87) recruited on the basis of elevated suicide ideation and depressive symptoms, future thinking, optimism, and future connectedness attenuated the relationship of suicide motivation with depressive symptoms and hopelessness. Future thinking moderated the impact of depressive symptoms on suicide preparation. No moderating effects were found for psychache. This study demonstrates that FTP may buffer against the worst effects of salient suicide predictors among high‐risk students.     

A Five‐Month Longitudinal Study of Psychache and Suicide Ideation: Replication in General and High‐Risk University Students

Shneidman's (1993) model of psychache as the cause of suicide was evaluated in a 5‐month longitudinal study of psychological pain and suicide ideation. Replicating across general (N = 683) and high‐risk undergraduates (N = 262), psychache was significantly associated with suicide ideation, and change in psychache was significantly associated with change in suicide ideation. For general suicide ideation and suicide preparation, these significant results were maintained even when depression and hopelessness were statistically controlled. This research is a unique contribution being the first large‐sample longitudinal study that evaluates and supports Shneidman's psychache causal model of suicidality in general and high‐risk groups.