Preliminary communication
Enhancing attributional style as a protective factor in suicide

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Abstract

Background

We applied Needles and Abramson (1990) recovery model of cognitive vulnerability to the suicide. Previous research has found that individuals who make global and stable attributions to positive events (an enhancing attributional style) are more resilient to depression and recover faster if they do become depressed. Building upon past research, we hypothesized that an enhancing attributional style would buffer the relationship between depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. We also explored possible mediators of this effect. Specifically, we hypothesized that the reduction in suicidal ideation may be due to changes in depressive symptoms.

Method

Two hundred and nine diverse undergraduates participated in a four-week prospective study.

Results

Results of a moderated Poisson regression analysis demonstrate that enhancing attributional style buffers the relationship between baseline depressive symptoms and followup suicidal ideation, controlling for baseline depressive symptoms. A mediated moderation analysis using structural equation modeling did not support the hypothesis that the reduction in suicidal ideation was due to a reduction in depressive symptoms.

Limitations

Limitations include an unselected college sample with a low base rate of suicidal ideation, the use of self-report measures, and assessing only suicidal ideation not behaviors.

Conclusions

Results suggest that enhancing attributional style is a viable protective factor in suicide. Moreover, the buffering effect is due to direct reduction in suicidal ideation, rather than simply a reduction in depressive symptoms. Since attributional styles are modifiable, findings suggest that modifying negative attributional styles can be useful to prevent suicide in a clinical setting.

Section snippets

Enhancing attributional style as a protective factor in suicide

According to the hopelessness theory of depression (Abramson et al., 1989), individuals at risk for depression interpret negative events as being caused by stable and global factors, which will likely recur in the future. This negative cognitive style (stable and global attributions), when activated by the occurrence of negative events, generates hopelessness, which leads to depression. Comprehensive tests of this theory have shown than individuals with a negative cognitive style are at

Participants

Participants were 209 undergraduates (84.2% female) in an IRB-approved online study. The mean age was 20.51 years (SD=4.12, range 17–50). Approximately 54% of the sample was Caucasian, 20% Asian, 13% African American, and 13% other races.

Procedure

Participants completed self-report measures twice separated by approximately four weeks. The second time point (T2) was completed an average of 26.28 day (SD=3.45 day) after completion of the first time point (T1). After informed consent, participants completed

Results

Descriptive statistics, including means, standard deviations, alpha coefficients, and correlations among study variables, are presented in Table 1. T1 suicidal ideation was correlated with T1 depressive symptoms (BDI) and T2 suicidal ideation (BSS), and was marginally correlated with enhancing style (CSQ). T1 depressive symptoms were correlated with enhancing style and T2 suicidal ideation. T2 depressive symptoms were correlated with T1 depressive symptoms, T1/T2 suicidal ideation, and T1

Discussion

Although previous studies have shown that enhancing attributional style (EAS) predicts faster recovery from depression (Johnson et al., 1998, Needles and Abramson, 1990), the present study is the first to our knowledge to examine it in terms of protection from suicide. Generally, our findings were consistent with the assumption that EAS serves a protective factor in suicide. Specifically, we found that individuals with greater depressive symptoms were protected from increases in suicidal

Role of funding source

No sources of funding were provided and thus had no role in the design, execution and interpretation of this study.

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the members of the Cognitive Vulnerability to Anxiety Lab for their help in collecting this data.

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