The Relationship And Mechanism Of College Students’ Thwarted Belongingness,Perceived Burdensomeness And Suicide Ideation

The limited progress of suicide intervention and prevention has made researchers pay more and more attention to the theory-driven research of suicide.In 2005,Joiner proposed the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide(IPTS),which believes that thwarted belongingness(TB)and perceived burdensomeness(PB)are the proximal and sufficient influencing factors of suicidal ideation.Up to now,this theory has become one of the most in-depth theories of contemporary suicidal ideation and behavioral development research.However,with the deepening of research,many researchers have found that the relationship between thwarted belongingness,perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation assumed by IPTS cannot always be verified.The theory has a strong explanatory power but insufficient predictive power for suicidal ideation and behavior.In order to better improve the predictive power of the theory on suicidal behavior,it is of vital importance to explore the relationship between the core variables of the theory(i.e.,thwarted belongingness,perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation)in depth and fully in view of the inconsistent results of the existing research.This study explored the relationship between thwarted belongingness,perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation from the distal and proximal time frames.Study 1hypothesized the impact of thwarted belongingness on suicidal ideation within a distal time frame(long-term),as well as the individual and chain mediating effects of self-esteem and perceived burdensomeness,and validated them using questionnaire methods.A total of 741 college students(198 clinical and 543 non-clinical participants)was recruited for the questionnaire survey.The confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis were used to test the hypothesis model in clinical and non-clinical samples respectively.The results showed that the fitting degree of the theoretical model in non-clinical samples was better than that in clinical samples.(1)in clinical samples:a.perceived burdensomeness could independently mediate the effect of thwarted belongingness on suicidal ideation;b.the chain from self-esteem to perceived burdensomeness could mediate the effect of thwarted belongingness on suicidal ideation;c.the direct effect of thwarted belongingness on suicidal ideation was not significant.(2)in non-clinical samples:a.both self-esteem and perceived burdensomeness could mediate the effect of thwarted belongingness on suicidal ideation independently;b.the chain from self-esteem to perceived burdensomeness could mediate the effect of thwarted belongingness on suicidal ideation;c.the direct effect of thwarted belongingness on suicidal ideation was not significant.Study 2 used the "interpersonal persistence task" experimental paradigm to explore the dynamic interaction between thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness from the proximal time frame(in short term),as well as the proximal impact of the two on suicidal ideation.In study 2,a total of 339 participants were recruited to complete the experiment.The participants were randomly divided into four groups and entered Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 respectively.Previous studies have found that the experimental paradigm could effectively manipulate subjects’ thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness,and test the influence of the two on subjects’ current desire to drop out of the task.Among them,the variable of desire to drop out of the task simulates the suicidal ideation in real life.Therefore,the experiment explores the dynamic interaction of thwarted belongingness,perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation in a safe way in the short term.The results showed that there were complex internal connection and mutual independence at the same time between thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness in short term,confirming the hypothesis of interpersonal theory,and the two had a proximal impact on suicidal ideation.Specifically manifested as:(1)the interaction between thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness:a.if the level of one decreased,another would decrease as well,and an increase in perceived burdensomeness would also cause an increase in thwarted belongingness.However,an increase in thwarted belongingness would actually lead to a decrease in the level of perceived burdensomeness.Besides,individuals with higher levels of thwarted belongingness were less likely to experience perceived burdensomeness when encountering stress events.Thus,there was an asymmetric and complex internal connection between thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness;b.in addition,the generation of thwarted belongingness was not affected by the individual’s initial level of perceived burdensomeness,indicating a certain degree of mutual independence between thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness.(2)the proximal effect of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness on suicidal ideation:in the proximal time frame,there was a significant positive predictive effect of both thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness on suicidal ideation.That is,the level of individual suicidal ideation varied with changes in thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness;and in the state of a high level of perceived burdensomeness,although the reduction of thwarted belongingness made the perceived burdensomeness reduce,it cannot completely alleviate the suicide risk caused by high perceived burdensomeness.The study 3 was an intervention experiment.The cognitive dissociation and emotional acceptance techniques of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy(ACT)were used in the form of self-help reading intervention to intervene perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness during the completion of the study 2.This intervention was also one of the measures to address the ethical issues that may arise from the experiment in Study 2.Analysis of the intervention effect found that using ACT technology for brief psychological intervention could effectively improve the emotional state of participants,verifying the feasibility and effectiveness of using ACT technology for brief psychological intervention in behavioral experiments.But the effectiveness of intervention cannot be effectively transferred to real life as the experiment ends.In this study,three sub-studies were used to explore the relationship between self-esteem,thwarted belongingness,perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation from the distal and proximal time frames,respectively.This study enriched and supplemented the empirical research results of suicidal interpersonal theory,improved the predictive power of theory on suicidal behavior,and provided a research basis for suicide prevention and intervention.