Symposia
Suicide and Self-Injury
Ki Eun (Kay) Shin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Long Island University - Post
Brookville, New York
Christine B. Cha, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Teachers College, Columbia University
New York, New York
Michelle G. Newman, Ph.D.
Professor
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania
Emotional dysregulation is considered a prominent mechanism of suicide risk (e.g., Selby, Anestis, & Joiner, 2008) and emphasized as an intervention target (e.g., Linehan, 1993). For instance, emotional vulnerabilities such as lability and reactivity to negative emotional stimuli have been shown to contribute to suicidal thoughts and behaviors (e.g., Glenn, Bagge, & Osman, 2013). However, the existing literature is qualified by several methodological limitations. First, most prior work relied on static, retrospective, and aggregate self-report measures, which fail to capture the constantly changing nature of emotional experiences in daily life, referred to as emotion dynamics. In addition, few studies have accounted for the potential confounding effect of comorbid internalizing disorders, which also involve emotion dysregulation (Aldao et al., 2010). These limitations obscure what we know and how we should intervene on suicidal individuals’ emotional functioning. To address these limitations, the current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine indices of emotion dynamics (mean, variability, instability, inertia, and reactivity) and their associations with suicidal thoughts and behaviors among anxious and depressed individuals. The present sample included 183 adults with anxiety or depressive disorders (89% female, 1% transgender). Mean age was 19.40 (range = 18-53). Diagnostic status, current suicidal ideation, and lifetime suicide attempt history were assessed via a structured diagnostic interview (MINI; Sheehan et al., 1998), ultimately yielding three groups: suicidal ideation with suicide attempt history (n=38), suicidal ideation only (n=57), and no suicidal ideation/attempt history (n=88). Participants completed 8-day EMA on their positive (PE) and negative emotions (NE) 9 times per day. Emotion dynamics indices were computed for each valence and compared between groups. Results revealed that participants with suicide attempt history (M = 4.35, SD = 1.73) reported higher NE on average than non-suicidal participants (M = 3.64, SD =1.39), p = .05, d = .47. Those with suicide attempt history (M = 1.17, SD = .51; M = 1.38, SD = .57) also showed greater NE and PE moment-to-moment fluctuations, or instability, than those with suicidal ideation only (M = .93, SD = .29; M = 1.14, SD = .33), ps = .01-.03, ds = .55-.62. These findings indicate that distinct daily emotional processes, such as emotional instability, may distinguish suicidal, anxious and depressed individuals with and without a prior suicide attempt.