The predictive role of cognitive regulation of emotion and death anxiety in adults’ suicidal ideation
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: Suicide attempt is one of the most unpleasant psychological and social events.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship of cognitive emotion regulation and death anxiety with suicidal ideation in the adult population of Zahedan.
Methods: This was a descriptive-correlational study performed among adults residing in Zahedan, Iran. The participants consisted of 384 people who were selected through the cluster sampling method. Data were collected using the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (Beck, 1991), the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnfsky, 2001) and the Death Anxiety Scale (Templer, 1970). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (i.e., mean and standard deviation), Pearson correlation coefficient and linear and stepwise regression methods in SPSS version 26.
Results: The findings showed that the components of cognitive emotion regulation, including self-blame, acceptance, rumination, catastrophizing and other-blame, have a significant positive relationship with suicidal ideation. On the other hand, between suicidal ideation and positive refocus, refocus on positive planning and reappraisal significant a negative relationship was noted. The results also showed a significant positive relationship between death anxiety and suicidal ideation (P = 0.001). The results of stepwise regression revealed in the first step that other-blame explained 0.07 of suicidal ideation variance, in the second step other-blame along with catastrophizing explained 0.12 of the variance, and in the third step, other-blame along with catastrophizing and rumination explained 0.15 of the variance related to suicidal tendencies.
Conclusion: Since the use of emotion regulation strategies without cognition and the existence of death anxiety increases suicidal ideation, therapists in counseling centers are recommended to pay attention to these variables to treat and reduce suicidal ideation.