Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Footscray Park, Ballarat Rd, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development (SEED), School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
BMC Psychol. 2023 Oct 6;11(1):312. doi: 10.1186/s40359-023-01338-5.
Suicide is a serious public health issue. Distress has been identified as a common risk factor, with research also suggesting that a lack of social connectedness is involved.
This quantitative, cross-sectional study investigated the role of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness in the psychological distress/suicidal ideation pathway in a community sample of 480 Australian adults.
As expected, distress was found to be a strong predictor of suicidal ideation. Perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness both moderated and mediated the relationship between distress and suicidal ideation. Specifically, distress was more strongly linked to suicide ideation when burdensomeness or thwarted belongingness were also high. This moderating effect was stronger for thwarted belongingness than it was for burdensomeness. These variables also mediated the pathway, in that higher distress related to higher burdensomeness and thwarted belonging, which in turn related to higher suicide ideation. This mediating effect was stronger for burdensomeness than for thwarted belonging.
Overall, the findings confirm the importance of our social relatedness in suicide. Increasing belongingness and reducing the perception of being a burden on others may be an important intervention strategy for weakening the link between distress and suicide ideation.
自杀是一个严重的公共卫生问题。研究表明，痛苦是一个常见的风险因素，同时也表明缺乏社会联系也与之相关。
本研究采用定量、横断面研究方法，调查了澳大利亚 480 名成年人样本中，感知负担和归属感受挫在心理困扰/自杀意念途径中的作用。
正如预期的那样，痛苦被发现是自杀意念的一个强有力的预测因子。感知负担和归属感受挫都调节并介导了痛苦和自杀意念之间的关系。具体来说，当负担感或归属感受挫也很高时，痛苦与自杀意念的联系就更紧密了。这种调节作用对于归属感受挫来说比对于负担感更强。这些变量也在通路中起中介作用，即较高的痛苦与较高的负担感和归属感受挫有关，而归属感受挫又与较高的自杀意念有关。这种中介作用对于负担感来说比对于归属感受挫更强。
总的来说，这些发现证实了我们的社会联系在自杀中的重要性。增加归属感和减少被他人视为负担的感觉可能是一个重要的干预策略，以削弱痛苦和自杀意念之间的联系。
