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Health Downturns and Predictors of Suicidal Ideation: An Application of the Baumeister Model
Author(s) -
Reich John W.,
Newsom Jason T.,
Zautra Alex J.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-278x.1996.tb00613.x
Subject(s) - suicidal ideation , psychology , structural equation modeling , ideation , cognition , personality , clinical psychology , suicide prevention , social psychology , poison control , medicine , psychiatry , medical emergency , computer science , cognitive science , machine learning
Suicidal thoughts and attempts have been studied from a number of perspectives, but only recently has an attempt been made to incorporate many different psychological perspectives into one framework. Baumeister (1990) has integrated personality and social psychological perspectives into one sequential model, moving from instigating events to a final stage of suicidal thoughts. Employing a sample of older adult subjects undergoing the stresses of a recent health downturn, this study tested a four‐stage model of suicidal ideation based on many of the components proposed by Baumeister. Structural equation modeling achieved a good fit to the data. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of including life events, particularly poor health, and cognitive variables such as confusions in thinking, in understanding suicidal ideation.