Personal Technology Use and Thwarted Belongingness Among Suicidal Active‐Duty Military Personnel

Abstract

This study (a) provides descriptive information about the personal technology use of a suicide sample of active-duty military personnel and (b) uses a traditional and a technology-based measure of social connectedness to examine their relation to suicide ideation and behaviors. Higher thwarted belongingness, and therefore lower perceived social connectedness, was associated with higher current and worst suicide ideation and a greater lifetime self-directed violence regardless of intent to die. Higher social connectedness based on personal technology usage was associated with higher current suicide ideation and a higher number of lifetime self-directed violence and suicide attempts.

How Is the Presence of Company Related to Thwarted Belongingness in Real Time? Taking a Closer Look at the Conceptualization of the Construct of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide

“…Moreover, mixed findings are already available for newer technologies, illustrating that the influence of online interactions on TB is still unclear. While Moberg and Anestis [23] found that negative interactions on social networking sites predicted TB, Ringer and Anestis [12] only detected the independent associations of negative face-to-face interactions, but not of negative online interactions, with higher levels of TB, and Chalker and Comtois [24] did not find an association between TB and social connectedness via a mobile phone. Overall, these findings mainly suggest relations between TB and variables based on dysfunctional (interpersonal) cognitions (representing intrapersonal factors), while it remains rather unclear if there are also associations with more objective criteria, such as the mere presence of another person (representing interpersonal factors).…”