Perceived Stress and Intent to Die in Young Soldiers Who Attempt Suicide

Intent to die is an important component of suicide risk assessment. The authors compared the predictive effect of two forms of stress - military and perceived - in intent to die by suicide among young adult Israeli soldiers with a history of suicide attempts. Depression, suicide ideation, and habituation/acquired capacity for suicidality served as covariates.

Participants were 60 young adult soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force (ISF; aged 18-21 years), who made a suicide attempt during their military service. Study variables were assessed using self-report measures.

Intent to die by suicide correlated with suicide ideation, habituation/acquired capacity, depressive symptoms, and perceived stress. In a multiple regression analysis, perceived stress predicted intent to die (b = .44, p = .002) over and above the prediction by suicide ideation (b = .42, p = .013) and acquired capacity/habituation (b = .28, p = .023).

The cross-sectional design restricts causal inference. In addition, an exclusive reliance on self-report measures might have inflated shared method variance.

Perceived stress captures a unique dimension of intent to die by suicide among young suicide attempters.