Citation

Martin RL, Bauer BW, Smith NS, Daruwala SE, Green BA, Anestis MD, Capron DW. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sltb.12616

PMID

32026518

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Suicide is consistently within the top ten leading causes of death in the United States. The suicide rate of National Guard personnel is elevated relative to the general population; however, research suggests that many of the suicide risk factors for military personnel are similar to the suicide risk factors for civilians. We examined whether negative urgency moderated the relationships between anger/hostility and perceived burdensomeness/thwarted belongingness in both a military and civilian samples.

METHOD: There were two samples in the current study: (1) military personnel (majority national guard) and (2) community members oversampled for suicide attempt history.

RESULTS: Our hypotheses were partially supported with the interaction of hostility and negative urgency predicting perceived burdensomeness in the military sample. Within civilians, anger interacted with negative urgency to predict perceived burdensomeness. There were nonsignificant findings for analyses predicting thwarted belongingness. Exploratory analyses indicated that in both samples, anger and hostility interacted with negative urgency to predict suicidal ideation.

CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that aggressive attributes may contribute to individuals feeling as though they are a burden on others when moderate to high levels of negative urgency are present. Additionally, this study provides foundational support for the differences between suicidal desire and ideation.

© 2020 The American Association of Suicidology.

Language: en