Citation

Zeifman RJ, Ip J, Antony MM, Kuo JR. J. Am. Coll. Health 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/07448481.2019.1679154

PMID

31662050

Abstract

Objective: Suicide is a major public health concern. It is unknown whether self-compassion is associated with suicide risk above and beyond suicide risk factors such as self-criticism, hopelessness, and depression severity. Participants: Participants were 130 ethnically diverse undergraduate college students. Methods: Participants completed self-report measures of self-compassion, self-criticism, hopelessness, depression severity, and suicidal behaviors, as well as an implicit measure of suicidality. Results: Self-compassion was significantly associated with self-reported suicidal behaviors, even when controlling for self-criticism, hopelessness, and depression severity. Self-compassion was not significantly associated with implicit suicidality. Conclusions: The findings suggest that self-compassion is uniquely associated with self-reported suicidal behaviors, but not implicit suicidality, and that self-compassion is a potentially important target in suicide risk interventions. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

Implicit suicidality; self-compassion; self-criticism; suicidal behaviors; suicide risk