A Brief Mindfulness Intervention Attenuates Desire to Escape Following Experimental Induction of the Interpersonal Adversity Implicated in Suicide Risk

Abstract

According to the interpersonal theory of suicide, perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness are proximal causal factors underlying suicidal desire. The current study examined whether a brief mindfulness intervention can attenuate the deleterious effects of these interpersonal factors on desire to escape, a potential antecedent to suicide risk. Participants (N = 92) completed a computerised team task designed to manipulate perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness (high or low PB/TB) and were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (1) low PB/TB without intervention, (2) high PB/TB without intervention, (3) high PB/TB with a brief mindfulness intervention administered at the halfway point, or (4) high PB/TB with a brief unfocused attention intervention administered at the halfway point. As expected, simultaneous induction of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness increased desire to escape in the initial stages of the task in all three high PB/TB conditions. However, the mindfulness intervention attenuated the effects of the interpersonal factors on desire to escape across the latter stages of the task relative to the unfocused attention intervention and the high PB/TB condition where no intervention was administered. Findings suggest that mindfulness interventions may protect against the type of interpersonal adversity causally implicated in suicidal desire.

Neuroticism confers vulnerability in response to experimentally induced feelings of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness: Implications for suicide risk

“…The interpersonal persistence task (Collins et al, ) provides an opportunity to safely manipulate the interpersonal risk factors thought to be proximal and causal antecedents to suicidal desire to observe the effect on the desire to escape this adversity. Consistent with previous research using this task, we found reliable and large effects of PB‐TB condition on participants’ desire to escape from this interpersonal adversity.…”

“…One potential limitation in the design is that we did not include indices of general negative affect measured across the task to demonstrate specificity of the changes in belongingness and burdensomeness. However, previous research using this paradigm found that the desire to drop out of the task is attributable to the specific interpersonal adversity rather than negative affect associated with a general failure experience (George et al, ), and when levels of general negative affect were tracked throughout the task, it was the interpersonal adversity of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness that predicted the desire to drop out of the task, and not general distress (Collins et al, ).…”

“…For example, neuroticism is associated with low levels of perceived social inclusion and greater sensitivity to cues of social exclusion (Denissen & Penke, ), as well as with feelings of being a burden on others (Chochinov et al, ). The aim of the present study was to experimentally manipulate feelings of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness (Collins, Best, Stritzke, & Page, ; Collins, Stebbing, Stritzke, & Page, ) and to test whether neuroticism moderates the effects of induced thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness on the desire to escape from this interpersonal adversity.…”

“…In the present study, we used an interpersonal persistence task designed to experimentally induce high or low feelings of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness and observed the effects of this manipulation on the desire to escape this interpersonal adversity (Collins et al, ). Escape is operationalized as the desire to drop out of the team activity measured at various time intervals throughout the persistence task.…”

An Experimental Test of the ‘Interpersonal’ in the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide

“…Team task belongingness ratings were reverse-coded such that high scores represent higher levels of thwarted belongingness. Recent research indicates that participants who play the Persistence Task express a strong desire to belong to their team, and the large effect of the experimental belongingness manipulation shows that this powerful need to belong to the team can be thwarted(Collins, Stebbing, Stritzke, & Page, 2017).…”