The Moderating Role of Interpersonal Hopelessness on Proximal Transitions to Suicidal Thinking

Abstract

The integrated motivational-volitional (O’Connor & Kirtley, 2018) model states that feelings of entrapment contribute to the development of suicidal ideation but only occur when motivational moderators such as perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness are present. The interpersonal theory of suicide (Joiner, 2005) emphasizes that feelings of hopelessness about interpersonal experiences of burdensomeness and thwarted belonging motivate suicidal ideation. There is a need to test whether interpersonal hopelessness affects the transition to suicidal intent over time as most existing research is cross-sectional (Mandracchia et al., 2021). We aimed to test if interpersonal hopelessness moderated the relationship between entrapment at baseline and suicidal ideation one month later. 30 participants (Mage = 35.57, SD = 4.36, 58.6% female) were recruited from an outpatient clinic who indicated suicidal ideation and completed scales on interpersonal hopelessness, entrapment, and suicidal ideation at baseline and one month later. A moderation analysis, F (3, 20) = 3.46, p < .04, showed that interpersonal hopelessness accounted for 34.2% of the variance in suicidal ideation one month later. These results suggest that higher levels of interpersonal hopelessness may facilitate transitions from feelings of entrapment to suicidal intent across one month, supporting the IMV and IPTS theories of suicide risk.