The Ecological Momentary Assessment Of Suicide Ideation

Suicide is a major public health problem worldwide and the leading cause of death among people aged 15-34 in China.The study of suicide ideation is an important step in the study of suicidal behavior.Suicide ideation is the starting point of suicidal behavior.The high incidence of suicide ideation and its close relationship with future suicide attempts determine the necessity and importance of studying suicide ideation.However,despite decades of research,the basic nature of suicide ideation is still not well understood,especially the dynamic characteristics of suicide ideation are often ignored.One of the reasons for this phenomenon is that the existing retrospective measurement tools and cross-sectional study design limit the exploration of the dynamic changes of suicide ideation over a short period of time.In recent years,the emergence of the Ecological Momentary Assessment(EMA)has made it possible to explore the characteristics of short-term dynamic changes of suicide ideation.The EMA is a group of research methods using repeated collection of real-time data on subjects’ behavior and experience in their natural environments.The feasibility of using EMA in suicide studies has been demonstrated.The purpose of this study was to evaluate suicide ideation among Chinese undergraduates using the EMA.We aim to capture the dynamic characteristics of suicide ideation.On this basis,this study will further search for short-term predictors that can predict suicide ideation.In study 1,31 participants who have suicide ideation in recent one month were included.Participants rated their momentary level of suicide ideation up to 5 times per day on paper.The difference between scores before and after suicide ideation,Intra Class Correlations,the Mean Squared Successive Differences and the diurnal timetrends in suicide ideation were evaluated by R and HLM.The time series plots of suicide ideation,the time series plots of individual suicide ideation and the trend of individual suicide ideation over time were drew.Results identified the dynamic characteristics of suicide ideation among Chinese undergraduates.Suicide ideation vary over short periods of time(3-6h)and there is no discernable pattern.Study 2 used the same participants as Study 1,with the help of HLM software,the emotion and suicide ideation-related psychological variables at time T,time T-1and time T-2 were taken as independent variables,and the suicide ideation at time T was taken as dependent variable to establish multilevel regression models.The study also controlled for suicide ideation at time T-1 and time T-2 to examine the short-term predictive effect of various variables on suicide ideation.Results identified the dynamic characteristics of emotion and suicide ideation-related psychological variables.Among emotional variables,anger,fear,and distress are risk factors of suicide ideation.These emotional variables are significantly and positively associated with suicide ideation 3-6 hr later.Relaxed is a protective factor of suicide ideation.It is significantly and negatively associated with suicide ideation 3-6 hr later.Distress is prospectively associated with suicide ideation 3-6 hr and 6-9hr later.Sadness couldn’t predict suicide ideation 3-6 hr later,it predicts suicide ideation 6-9 hr later.Among suicidal ideation-related psychological variables,thwarted belongingness and hopeless are risk factors of suicide ideation.These variables are significantly and positively associated with suicide ideation 3-6 hr later.Entrapment couldn’t predict suicide ideation 3-6 hr and it predicts suicide ideation 6-9 hr later.The present study confirmed the feasibility of EMA,suggesting that EMA can be used to capture the dynamic characteristics of suicide ideation and search for ShortTerm predictors of suicide ideation.The hypothesis that the suicide ideation of Chinese undergraduates has dynamic characteristics has been verified,and the shortterm predictors of suicide ideation have been explored.