Recipients of Suicide-Related Disclosure: The Link between Disclosure and Posttraumatic Growth for Suicide Attempt Survivors

Abstract

It is important to explore factors that could help or hinder one’s wellbeing following a suicide attempt, which could yield not only negative consequences but also posttraumatic growth (PTG; positive changes following a traumatic event). The present study used a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) to test the relationship between disclosure, PTG, and posttraumatic depreciation among suicide attempt survivors when controlling for time since attempt and to test whether these effects remained after controlling for quality of support from family and friends. Suicide attempt survivors (n = 159) completed an online survey about their experiences. Increases in disclosure to family and friends but not to healthcare providers predicted changes in PTG. The effects of family disclosure remained even after controlling for quality of support. Disclosure to healthcare providers demonstrated some statistical effects on PTG, yet in the opposite direction and only after controlling for quality of support. The control variables—time since attempt and quality of support—were the only variables that predicted a change in posttraumatic depreciation. These findings suggest there is value in disclosing one’s personal story to family regardless of whether one receives supportive responses and that social support can impact one’s PTG.

The Impact of General Self-Efficacy on Psychological Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Posttraumatic Growth and the Moderating Role of Deliberate Rumination

“…However, PTG does not occur naturally. Many studies have examined the factors that predict whether individuals can achieve positive changes after trauma, showing that GSE (Blackburn and Owens, 2015;Jurisova, 2016), social support (Jia et al, 2017;Frey et al, 2019), challenging core beliefs, rumination (Ramos et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018), selfesteem (Ma et al, 2019), resilience (Wu et al, 2015;Yun et al, 2020), and other factors can act directly or indirectly to promote individual PTG. Among these predictors, high GSE has been shown to promote and improve response measures and behaviors of nursing staff (Jurisova, 2016), veterans (Blackburn and Owens, 2015), and cancer patients (Yu et al, 2014;Mystakidou et al, 2015) to adversity that can lead to individual PTG.…”

“…However, PTG does not occur naturally. Many studies have examined the factors that predict whether individuals can achieve positive changes after trauma, showing that GSE (Blackburn and Owens, 2015 ; Jurisova, 2016 ), social support (Jia et al, 2017 ; Frey et al, 2019 ), challenging core beliefs, rumination (Ramos et al, 2018 ; Zhang et al, 2018 ), self-esteem (Ma et al, 2019 ), resilience (Wu et al, 2015 ; Yun et al, 2020 ), and other factors can act directly or indirectly to promote individual PTG.…”

Physician Suicide Prevention and the Ethics and Role of a Healing Community: an American College of Physicians Policy Paper

“…Data in the general population suggest that active contact and follow-up with those who have attempted suicide are critical to preventing future attempts. 34 Opportunities for those who have attempted suicide to freely share their story (if they choose, and with whom they choose) can support the well-being of the individual 6 , 35 and suicide prevention efforts of the broader medical community.…”

Forms of suicide communication are not associated with five-factor personality

“…Suicide threats refer to suicide communication with the function of manipulating others or gaining attention and are frequently associated with borderline personality and chronic self-injury (Wedig et al, 2013). There are numerous empirical limitations and dangerous clinical implications of conflating any form of suicide communication with a suicide threat because these communications come in different forms and may serve a multitude of functions (Frey et al, 2019;Silverman, 2006). Therefore, any examination of personality and suicide communication must consider the dimensional and multifaceted nature of both constructs.…”

“…There are numerous other possible functions that communications about suicide may serve (Frey et al, 2019;Fulginiti et al, 2016). In particular, seeking formal or informal help and coping (e.g.…”