Tendency to Develop Suicidal Ideation in Response to Stress: A Proposed Indicator of Risk for Future Suicidal Ideation

Suicide is a worldwide public health crisis. Research investigating novel risk factors for suicidal ideation (SI) may improve our ability to predict SI and prevent suicide. The positive relationship between stress and SI is well-supported, yet research to date has not investigated whether repeatedly experiencing SI directly in response to stress influences risk for future SI. Extant suicide literature suggests that the repeated pattern of experiencing SI in response to stress may reflect the dynamic interplay between experiencing distress and the desire to escape distress. The current study investigated the association between the tendency to develop SI in response to stress (i.e., percentage of stressful events resulting in SI) and past month SI. Given the proposed theoretical underpinnings, the association between the bias to escape emotional distress and the tendency to develop SI in response to stress was also investigated. A total of 691 participants (M_age = 29.05 [SD = 12.13], 54.60% female, 84.40% white) were recruited from an online community (n = 370) and a university (n = 321). Participants completed a survey battery to measure prior year stressful life events, the bias to escape emotional distress (i.e., escape acceptance), prior year perceived stress, key SI risk factors (i.e., childhood trauma, generalized anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, hopelessness), and SI history. Results suggest that the tendency to develop SI in response to stress is associated with past month SI, and this relationship holds when considering prior year perceived stress, prior SI, and other key SI risk factors. The tendency to develop SI in response to stress was also positively correlated with the bias to escape emotional distress. The tendency to develop SI in response to stress is a novel measure that improves our understanding of SI risk and may serve as an umbrella measure of the interplay between emotional distress and the bias to escape emotional distress.