Citation

Joiner TE, Rudd MD. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 1996; 26(1): 19-26.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, 77555-0425, USA Thomas.Joiner@utmb.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9173606

Abstract

We attempted to disentangle the interrelations between hopelessness, loneliness, and suicidal ideation, by comparing two conceptually driven models of their relationships, prospectively among 234 undergraduates, using a series of multiple regression/correlation equations. Model 1 framed loneliness as a risk factor for future suicidality that operates via its influence on hopelessness (the mediational view). Model 2 viewed hopelessness as a source variable that is predictive of both loneliness and suicidality, and postulated no relation between loneliness and suicidality beyond hopelessness. Model 2 received support, whereas Model 1 did not. We discuss the implications of our findings for the nomological status of hopelessness and loneliness as correlates of suicidality, and for exploration of the structural interrelations of suicide-related variables in general.