Bhullar Navjot, Sanford Rebecca L, Maple Myfanwy
School of Psychology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia.
School of Social Work and Human Service, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC, Canada.
Front Psychiatry. 2021 Jul 5;12:692363. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.692363. eCollection 2021.
The Continuum of Survivorship proposes a way in which individuals may experience the suicide death of someone known to them along a continuum from being exposed to the death through to long-term bereavement. The present study provides a first empirical testing of the proposed model in an Australian community sample exposed to suicide. Using a Latent Profile Analysis, we tested the suicide exposure risk factors (time since death, frequency of pre-death contact, reported closeness, and perceived impact) to map to the Continuum of Survivorship model. Results revealed identification of five profiles, with four ranging from suicide exposed to suicide bereaved long-term broadly aligning with the proposed model, with one further profile being identified that represented a discordant profile of low closeness and high impact of suicide exposure. Our findings demonstrate that while the proposed model is useful to better understand the psychological distress related to exposure to suicide, it cannot be used as "shorthand" for identifying those who will be most distressed, nor those who may most likely need additional support following a suicide death. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
幸存者连续体提出了一种方式，即个体可能会沿着从接触死亡到长期丧亲之痛的连续体，经历其认识的人的自杀死亡。本研究首次在澳大利亚一个遭受自杀事件影响的社区样本中，对该模型进行了实证检验。我们使用潜在剖面分析，测试了自杀暴露风险因素（死亡后的时间、死前接触频率、报告的亲密度以及感知到的影响），以对应幸存者连续体模型。结果显示识别出了五种剖面，其中四种从自杀暴露到长期自杀丧亲者，大致与该模型相符，另外还识别出一种剖面，代表了低亲密度和高自杀暴露影响的不一致剖面。我们的研究结果表明，虽然该模型有助于更好地理解与自杀暴露相关的心理困扰，但它不能作为识别哪些人会最痛苦，以及哪些人在自杀死亡后最可能需要额外支持的“捷径”。本文还讨论了研究结果的意义和未来的研究方向。
