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Distinguishing Pathways from Negative Emotions to Suicide Ideation and to Suicide Attempt: the Differential Mediating Effects of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury

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Abstract

Negative emotion (NE) is one of the most widely examined risk factors for suicide ideation (SI) and suicide attempt (SA). However, little is known about the possibly different mechanisms underlying the pathways from NE to these two different suicide phenomena. Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is related to both negative emotions and suicidality. Thus, the present study aimed to test the differential roles of NSSI in the pathways from NE (specified by depression, anxiety, and stress) to SI and from NE to SA. This study hypothesized that NSSI served as a mediator in the relationship from NE to SA, but not in the relationship from NE to SI. We assessed the study variables among 3600 Chinese students (56.6% females, mean age = 14.63 years) for 3times at 6-month intervals. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Results partly supported the hypothesized longitudinal mediation model, such that NSSI fully mediated the relation from NE to SA in females, while partially mediated the relation from NE to SI in both females and males. Findings of this study may help to better understand the distinct mechanisms underlying the relationships from NE to SI and SA. Moreover, our finding regarding gender differences suggests the different emphases in suicide prevention and intervention programs across genders.

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Notes

  1. The model using listwise deletion also demonstrated an acceptable fit, χ 2 (N = 3358) = 448.17, df = 32, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.89, NFI = 0.88, and RMSEA = 0.06. The significance pattern of the individual paths in the model using listwise deletion was the same as that in the model using mean substitution for missing data. Thus, we reported only the results of the mean substitution model. Interested readers may contact the correspondence author for the results of the listwise deletion model.

  2. The multi-group analyses using listwise deletion for dealing with missing data yielded the same pattern of results. Thus, we did not present the specific results of the listwise deletion analyses. Interested readers may contact the correspondence author for these results.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31300874), the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant 14ZDB159), and the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan (Grant No. NSC 102-2511-S-003-016 -MY3). This study was also supported by the base of psychological services and counseling for “Happiness” in Guangzhou. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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  1. Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, Research Center for Crisis Intervention and Psychological Service of Guangdong Province, & School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, People’s Republic of China

    Xu Zhang, Yaxuan Ren, Jianing You & Yongqiang Jiang

  2. School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

    Chao Huang

  3. Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei City, Taiwan, People’s Republic of China

    Min-Pei Lin

  4. Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

    Freedom Leung

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  1. Xu Zhang
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Zhang, X., Ren, Y., You, J. et al. Distinguishing Pathways from Negative Emotions to Suicide Ideation and to Suicide Attempt: the Differential Mediating Effects of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury. J Abnorm Child Psychol 45, 1609–1619 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0266-9

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