Religiousness and non-hopeless suicide ideation.

Individuals who think about suicide but do not feel suicidally hopeless tend to be less religious and can therefore entertain thoughts of suicide unabated by religiousness. Religiousness, suicide ideation, and hopelessness were surveyed among 279 Idaho college students, 37 (13%) of whom were non-hopeless suicide ideators. A total of only 21 (7%) qualified as ideator/hopeless or non-ideator/hopeless with the remaining 221 (79%) qualifying as non-ideator/non-hopeless. Lower religiousness coinciding with greater ideation supports Durkheim's position that religious social affiliation protects against suicide. The fact that non-hopeless ideators were less religious than all others suggests that religion may provide hope that buffers against suicidal ideas.