Clarifying the role of emotion dysregulation in the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior in an undergraduate sample

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Abstract

The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior (IPTS; Joiner, 2005) has been subjected to a number of rigorous investigations and has shown to be a promising lens through which to understand suicide. One area thus far left unstudied with respect to the IPTS is emotion dysregulation. The bulk of the work examining the role of emotion dysregulation in suicidality has focused on suicidal ideation rather than behavior, with a number of studies reporting that emotion dysregulation is predictive of suicidal ideation (e.g., Lynch et al., 2004, Orbach et al., 2007). Studies examining suicide attempts have produced more ambiguous results. One way to clarify the nature of this relationship is to consider the construct of emotion dysregulation through an examination of specific subcomponents. In this study, we examined two specific components of emotion dysregulation – negative urgency and distress tolerance – and their relationships to all three components of the IPTS, thereby providing clarity for an otherwise poorly understood relationship. Results indicated that emotionally dysregulated individuals – those with low distress tolerance and high negative urgency – exhibited higher levels of suicidal desire, as indexed by perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness. In contrast, emotionally dysregulated individuals exhibited lower levels of the acquired capability for suicide and physiological pain tolerance. As such, a complicated but theoretically cogent picture emerged indicating that, although emotion dysregulation may drastically increase the likelihood of suicidal desire, it simultaneously serves as a form protection against lethal self-harm.

Section snippets

Participants

The sample consisted of 283 undergraduates ranging in age from 18 to 39 (mean = 19.34, standard deviation = 2.10). 109 (38.5%) of the participants were male, 166 (58.7%) were female, and 8 (2.8%) declined to indicate sex. The ethnic composition of the sample was 68.6% (n = 194) White, 13.1% (n = 37) Hispanic or Latino, 12.0% (n = 34) African American, 2.8% Asian (n = 8), and 3.5% (n = 10) other.

In order to control for the impact of potential third variables on our measure of pain tolerance,

Results

Means, standard deviations, minimums, maximums, and intercorrelations for the variables utilized in these analyses can be found in Table 1. Variable distributions were examined, and this examination revealed that one variable, pain tolerance, had significantskew (1.246) and kurtosis (1.887). These scores underwent a rank transformation that corrected for non-normality, resulting in diminished skew (.0) and kurtosis (1.2). For ease of presentation, the nontransformed means and standard

Discussion

The relationship between emotion dysregulation and suicide is frequently discussed, but research on this issue has thus far been unable to clarify the precise nature of that relationship. The central purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between two emotion dysregulation-related variables – distress tolerance and negative urgency – and the three components of the IPTS: thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and the acquired capability for suicide. Utilizing a sample

Funding source

No funding sources were utilized for this project.

Contributors

Author M.A. designed the study and managed data analysis. All authors took part in the interpretation of the results. Author M.A. managed the literature search and wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to and have approved the final draft.

Conflict of interest

The authors of this manuscript do not have any conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgements

The authors greatly appreciate the work of Bruno Chiurliza, Charlie Spillers, Ryan Clark-Gonzalez, Jimmy Powers, Dusty Hunsaker, and Anthony Ferrari, who collected data during the course of the study.

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