Relationship between life skills, repetitive negative thinking, family function, and life satisfaction in attempted suicide.

BACKGROUND

Impaired life skills, family dysfunction, negative thinking and low life satisfaction may predispose to suicidal behavior. There is paucity of study that examined these variables in suicide attempt.

AIMS

This study was conducted to know the levels and the relationships of these variables in attempted suicide.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN

Hospital-based cross-sectional.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In this hospital-based cross-sectional study, 328 participants with a history of attempted suicide were assessed using socio-demographic and clinical pro forma, life skills profile (LSP), perseverative thinking questionnaire (PTQ), satisfaction with life scale (SLS), and family assessment device (FAD) after obtaining informed consent.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis-H test and regression analysis.

RESULTS

Results revealed a mean scores on PTQ, LSP, SLS, and FAD to be 29.93 (standard deviation [SD] =13.5), 21.32 (SD = 13.5), 15.71 (SD = 6.8), and 26.46 (SD = 4.57), respectively. In linear regression analysis ( = 0.815, df = 3, = 475.715, = 0.001), LSP score had a statistically significant positive association with PTQ score (beta = 0.861, = 32.76, = 0.001) and FAD score (beta = 0.068, = 2.79, = 0.0046); while negative association with SLS score (beta = -0.078, = -2.92, = 0.004).

CONCLUSIONS

The study findings suggest of impaired life skills, life dissatisfaction, impaired family function, and elevated repetitive negative thinking pattern in attempted suicide. Better life skills have a positive association with higher life satisfaction, family function, and low repetitive thinking and thus seem to have a protective effect against suicidal behavior in the population.