Objective
Suicide is a serious public health issue. Although researchers have appealed for promoting connectedness as the core strategy for preventing suicide, the emphasis has predominantly been on social connectedness. This longitudinal study is to explore the relationship between the multidimensions of connectedness—encompassing self, others, and the world—and suicidal ideation.
Methods
We conducted a prospective study with 1550 participants aged 16-28 years at baseline, 1174 of these participants completed a 2-month follow-up. The cross-lagged panel analyses were to investigate the longitudinal association between connectedness and suicidal ideation controlling for the history of suicidal attempt and demographic variables among the full sample. The gender difference was also tested.
Results & Discussion
In the full sample, the cross-lagged path model revealed T1 total connectedness predicted negatively T2 suicidal ideation (β = -0.08, P = 0.035) and T1 suicidal ideation predicted negatively T2 total connectedness after controlling for age, single-child, single-parent, and history of suicidal attempt. Specifically, suicidal ideation at T1 significantly predicted negatively connectedness to self (β = -0.08, P = 0.017) and connectedness to others (β = -0.12, P < 0.001) at T2. These results indicated gender differences.
For women, T1 total connectedness predicted negatively T2 suicidal ideation (β = -0.12, P = 0.042), while the reverse direction was observed among men (β = -0.12, P < 0.001). To be specific, T1 connectedness to others predicted negatively T2 suicidal ideation (β = -0.19, P = 0.004) among women. For men, T1 suicidal ideation predicted negatively connectedness to self (β = -0.11, P < 0.001) and others (β = -0.16, P < 0.001) at T2, rather than connectedness to world (β = -0.01, P = 0.844). There was an interaction between connectedness to self and connectedness to world (β = 0.19, P = 0.038) among men. Under the low level of connectedness to world, connectedness to self at T1 was found to inhibit suicidal ideation at T2 (Simple slope = -0.22, P = 0.029) among men.
Conclusions
Our study confirms the protective role of total connectedness against suicidal ideation and negative impact of suicidal ideation on total connectedness. It also highlights the importance of connectedness to others for women and connectedness to self for men, particularly under the low level of connectedness world. This research advances the connectedness framework of suicide and provides evidence-based insights for suicide prevention efforts.
 

connectedness;suicidal ideation