Suicide attempts are a major global public health concern with wide-ranging tragic consequences. Trait anger has been shown to be a predictor of suicide attempts in past studies, with people higher...Show moreSuicide attempts are a major global public health concern with wide-ranging tragic consequences. Trait anger has been shown to be a predictor of suicide attempts in past studies, with people higher in trait anger having an increased risk of attempting suicide. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms as to why this relationship persists are still mostly unknown. The aim of this research was to investigate the prospective relationship between trait anger and suicide attempts. Based on the idea that frequent anger may harm social relationships, we proposed loneliness to mediate the relationship between trait anger and suicide attempts. The study design was longitudinal, and data was collected using ecological momentary assessment over a study period of one year. The sample consisted of participants with a history of suicide attempt or suicidal ideation (N = 65). Survival analysis was used to analyze the data. Against our predictions, higher trait anger was not related to an increased risk of attempting suicide. The hypothesized mediation effect of loneliness was also not significant. Possible reasons for this may be sample characteristics and our operationalizations of trait anger and loneliness. Nevertheless, our findings contribute to the literature on suicide attempts by utilizing comprehensive data collection and analysis methodologies as well as proposing important considerations for future research. Awareness of suicide attempts and corresponding prevention interventions are discussed.Show less
Although there are many established risk factors for suicide ideation, there is also some literature that questions the use of individual risk factors, and argues for a more complex approach...Show moreAlthough there are many established risk factors for suicide ideation, there is also some literature that questions the use of individual risk factors, and argues for a more complex approach towards them. Current research delved into the interplay between activating coping strategies, negative social interactions, and sleep disturbances in relation to suicide ideation. Study employed a longitudinal design with the sample of 82 participants with a recent history of a suicide attempt or moderate to severe suicide ideation. The observations were collected four times a day via ecological momentary assessments for the duration of three weeks. The hypotheses were tested via multilevel modelling analyses. Activating coping strategies were not significantly associated with reduced suicide ideation. Then, negative social interactions were positively associated with suicide ideation, poor subjective sleep quality, and nightmares. Furthermore, poor subjective sleep quality and difficulty falling asleep were associated with suicide ideation, whereas nightmares were not. Lastly, a full mediating effect of subjective sleep quality was found on the relationship between negative social interactions and suicide ideation. Despite some limitations, such as self-report and a somewhat selective sample, the study's strengths lie in its use of ecological momentary assessments and multilevel modelling, which enable a comprehensive examination of daily fluctuations and associations. The study discusses possible reasons for and the importance of current findings, and calls for future research to explore complex relationships among suicide ideation risk factors, potentially offering a more nuanced understanding of their predictive power.Show less
Adolescence is often characterized by an increase in negative affect and depressive symptoms. Sleep problems are common in depressed adolescents. Previous research indicates that sleep and mood are...Show moreAdolescence is often characterized by an increase in negative affect and depressive symptoms. Sleep problems are common in depressed adolescents. Previous research indicates that sleep and mood are bidirectionally associated. However, the predictive relationship between daily mood and sleep in the next night remains less clear. The current study aimed to compare subjective sleep quality between healthy and depressed adolescents. Secondly, this study aimed to examine whether the daily mood of the adolescents and parents, as well as parent-child interactions, predict sleep quality. A 14-day longitudinal observational study using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) was conducted in a sample of depressed (n = 80) and healthy adolescents (n = 35), aged between 11 and 17 years (M = 15.79, SD = 1.46), and their parents (n = 216). 65.6% of the participants were female and 34,4% were male. Participants completed four daily assessments on their mobile phones. The results indicate that adolescents with depression suffer from poorer sleep quality than healthy adolescents (MD = 1.60 (95% CI, 1.39 to 1.82), t(366.88) = 14.48, p < 0.001). Daily positive affect of the adolescent (b = 0.16, t(773.05) = 3.21, p < 0.001) and daily positive affect of the parents (b = 0.18, t(605.26) = 2.57, p = 0.01) were associated with better sleep quality of the adolescents. The effect of adolescent positive affect disappeared when controlling for other variables. Increasing positive affect during the day might consequently improve sleep quality. Interventions should consider the role of the family environment in adolescent sleep.Show less
Previous research indicates that both suicidal ideation and several risk factors fluctuate substantially within hours. Factors that increase the risk of suicidal ideation in the long-term may...Show morePrevious research indicates that both suicidal ideation and several risk factors fluctuate substantially within hours. Factors that increase the risk of suicidal ideation in the long-term may differ from factors contributing to present suicidal ideation. The aim of this single-case study was to investigate real-time, concurrent associations between suicidal ideation and perceived burdensomeness, hopelessness, loneliness, optimism, social support, and stress. Data were obtained via ecological momentary assessment with four assessments per day over a 21-day period. It was hypothesised that higher scores of burdensomeness, hopelessness, loneliness, and stress, as well as lower optimism scores and the absence of social support would be associated with concurrent increases in suicidal ideation. Additionally, the role of social support as a potential moderator of the relationships between suicidal ideation and perceived burdensomeness, hopelessness, loneliness, optimism, and stress was examined. A multilevel linear mixed model analysis yielded significant associations between hopelessness, loneliness, and social support with suicidal ideation. Further, social support significantly moderated the association between suicidal ideation and hopelessness, with both being lower when the participant was in company. These results imply that repeated daily assessments of hopelessness, loneliness, and social support in individuals at suicide risk may be used as indicators of the severity of current suicidal ideation. Besides, social support may serve as a protective factor that could be integrated in suicide prevention strategies. Nonetheless, these conclusions are limited in their external validity given the case-study design. Further research replicating this study with a larger sample is needed to obtain generalisable conclusions.Show less
Coronavirus disease 2019 has negatively affected the general population, and especially university undergraduates. Attending to and being aware of the present moment in an open, accepting and...Show moreCoronavirus disease 2019 has negatively affected the general population, and especially university undergraduates. Attending to and being aware of the present moment in an open, accepting and compassionate manner (i.e. mindfulness) has been shown to decrease depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms, and increase positive affect. In our present study, we used network analysis to examine the associations between anxiety, depression, stress, mindfulness and joy. An observational research design was used with a convenience sample of 66 undergraduate students aged 18 to 34 years who completed an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) on their phones. They were asked eight questionsーtwo psychological constructs and six subclinical psychopathology symptomsーfour times a day for two weeks. Network analysis resulted in temporal and contemporaneous network models, indicating that mindfulness at time t does not significantly predict any variable at later time t+1 on the temporal level. At the contemporaneous level, mindfulness is associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and joy. Given the limitations of the present study and the hypothesis generating nature of network analysis, we conclude that the significant partial correlations between mindfulness, psychological well-being and joy in the contemporaneous network may indicate potential causal relations worth following up on in future research.Show less
Background: Suicide forms a leading cause of death in the world, but much remains unknown about the daily risk factors for it. Stressful events are known to precede suicide attempts, but no...Show moreBackground: Suicide forms a leading cause of death in the world, but much remains unknown about the daily risk factors for it. Stressful events are known to precede suicide attempts, but no conclusions can be drawn about the proximal effect of stress on suicidal ideation and behavior. In addition, promising protective factors against stress and suicidal ideation, such as optimism, are yet to be studied in real-time. This case study aimed to discover more about the effect of stress on momentary suicidal ideation and whether optimism could protect an individual from the effects of stress. Methods: One participant was followed in daily life for 21 consecutive days, completing ecological momentary assessment (EMA) through a mobile phone app four times a day. EMA assessed stressful events, level of suicidal ideation and level of optimism. Simple linear regression analysis was performed to study the effect of stress on suicidal ideation and moderation analysis was performed to study the protective effect of optimism. Results: Stress was associated with momentary levels of suicidal ideation, with more stressful events being associated with more severe suicidal ideation. Optimism did not moderate the relationship between stress and suicidal ideation. Optimism independently was associated with momentary levels of suicidal ideation. Conclusions: Stress formed a significant risk factor for momentary suicidal ideation in a case study of daily predictors of suicidal ideation. Further replications of this study are needed to generalize the findings, but including stress management in treatment for suicidal symptoms might be particularly beneficial.Show less
Previous research has investigated the association between hunger and mental health. Although constructs such as stress, anxiety and depression have been indeed found to be related to appetite,...Show morePrevious research has investigated the association between hunger and mental health. Although constructs such as stress, anxiety and depression have been indeed found to be related to appetite, results are often contradictory and point to different causal directions. The present study investigates such associations in a student population of 84 individuals, by means of an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) method. Participants’ perceived levels of stress, anxiety, depression and hunger were recorded four times per day, during a two-weeks period. In addition, before accessing the study, students had to fill in a baseline assessment, which allowed for a further investigation of the relationship between trait and state hunger. A network approach was utilized for the first statistical analysis, allowing for the depiction of contemporaneous, temporal and between-subjects network, whilst a linear regression analysis was used to compare hunger data at baseline and during EMA. Results failed to replicate previous findings concerning appetite and mental health, as for all networks, hunger was not associated with any other variable of interest. However, we were able to identify a linear relationship between trait and state hunger, with the former being a significant positive predictor of the latter.Show less
Background: It is well established that social contact is related to mental health. Previous research has shown that the quantity and quality of social interactions are associated with the...Show moreBackground: It is well established that social contact is related to mental health. Previous research has shown that the quantity and quality of social interactions are associated with the development, course and severity of mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression. Less is known about the psychological effects of social contact during a pandemic. Method: The current study investigates the dynamic associations among offline social interactions, depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms in undergraduates from a Dutch university (N=79; 75.95% female; MAge =20.37) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) was used for the data collection. A short online questionnaire was prompted via smartphone four times a day for two consecutive weeks. Multilevel vector autoregressive models were used for the network analysis and centrality indices were calculated. Results: We found significant dynamic associations among the duration of offline social contact and depression symptoms only. The absence of pleasure was associated with less offline social interactions, and vice versa. Having nothing to look forward to was predictive of less offline social contact three hours later. Social contact scored the lowest on centrality indices in our sample. Conclusion: Altogether, we found the duration of offline social contact to be partially related to mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results, strengths and limitations are discussed. Examining the dynamic associations among mental health and social contact can provide novel insights into the development and maintenance of mental health issues.Show less
