Does Suicidal History Enhance Acceptance of Other Suicidal Individuals?

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-2001

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Suicide is stigmatized, so suicidal people may be especially hard to accept. To see if moderately suicidal outpatients were more accepting of a suicidal person than never-suicidal or severely suicide outpatients, 105 respondents completed measures of suicidality, depression, acceptance, and empathy. A curvilinear ANCOVA was nonsignificant, but a linear ANCOVA significantly adjusted for depression, and indicated, unexpectedly, that net of depression, never-suicidal people were more accepting of a suicidal person than moderately or severely suicidal people. Empathy and acceptance were moderately related. An implication is that social support for suicidal individuals might best be obtained from those who were never suicidal themselves.

Publication Title

Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior

Volume

31

Issue

4

First Page

397

Last Page

404

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