Graduation Year
2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.A.
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Degree Granting Department
Psychology
Major Professor
Jon Rottenberg, Ph.D.
Co-Major Professor
Fallon Goodman, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Marina Bornovalova, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Kelsey Merlo, Ph.D.
Keywords
Suicidality, Military, Recovery, Mental Health
Abstract
Prior suicide attempts are known to elevate the risk for re-attempting suicide and death by suicide. However, most people who attempt suicide will neither die by suicide nor re-attempt suicide. Establishing comprehensive knowledge about the prognosis of suicide attempts would be valuable for multiple stakeholders, including suicide attempt survivors, their loved ones, and mental health professionals treating suicidal patients. Nearly all work on functioning after a non-fatal suicide attempt centers on elevated risk, and the effects of a suicide attempt on long-term psychological well-being are unknown. The present study addressed this gap in the literature by comparing psychological well-being among veterans with and without a prior suicide attempt using data from three cohorts in a nationally representative sample of US veterans. At each cohort, veteran suicide attempt survivors evidenced large deficits in psychological well-being relative to veteran non-attempters (i.e., d > 0.8). Suicide attempt survivors with more time since their last attempt had increased levels of psychological well-being as did attempt survivors with high levels of curiosity and optimism. Situated in the larger psychological well-being literature, results suggest that the aftermath of a suicide attempt may be accompanied by deficits in long-term psychological well-being that are markedly higher than other serious medical events (e.g., cancer diagnosis) and signal an urgent need to broaden the research and treatment of suicide to include a greater focus on long-term psychological well-being. Data were cross-sectional, precluding inferences of any causal effects of a suicide attempt on psychological well-being. The findings from the present study provide an empirical foundation for future research on psychological well-being in suicide attempt survivors.
Scholar Commons Citation
Brown, Bradley A., "Do Suicide Attempt Survivors Have Reduced Long-Term Well-Being? A Study of Veterans Across Three Nationally Representative Cohorts" (2022). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/9306
