Psychological and cognitive-emotional moderators of suicidal ideation and self-harm in young adults

Abstract The risk for suicide has been conceptualized as a continuum from dysfunctional psychological and cognitive states to suicidal thoughts and behaviour. Little is known about risk and protective factors along the continuum. In the current study, we assessed ninety-four university students (36 individuals indicated suicidal ideation and 33 reported self-harm) for suicidality, depression, entrapment, defeat, hopelessness, mindfulness, self-compassion, and implicit associations with death/suicide. We used regression models and moderation analyses to test if mindfulness, self-compassion, and implicit association with death/suicide related to suicidal ideation, self-harm, entrapment, or moderated the hypothesized continuum from entrapment to suicidal ideation and from entrapment to self-harm. Analyses were corrected for the severity of depressive symptomatology. Results indicated that lower self-compassion and weaker implicit associations with death/suicide were statistically associated with self-harm, but not suicidal ideation. Mindfulness is trend-wise associated with entrapment and moderated the relation between entrapment and suicidal ideation. Self-compassion nor implicit associations with death/suicide moderated the relation between entrapment and suicidal ideation. Hence, lower self-compassion and weaker implicit associations with death/suicide seem directly related to suicide risk behaviour, whereas mindfulness appears to negatively (i.e., suggestive of a protective role) relate to psychological risk-states earlier in the continuum. Therefore, self-compassion and mindfulness seem promising prevention targets for suicide risk in young adults.