Relations Between Interpersonal Hopelessness and Help-Seeking Intentions and Behaviors in Suicidal Individuals

Background: Due to an increasing suicide rate, risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) are an important target for research. Furthermore, individuals experiencing STBs often do not seek help. This highlights the need to assess factors that are associated with help-seeking intentions and behaviors. Aim: The current study examines the role of interpersonal hopelessness in help-seeking intentions and behaviors in suicidal individuals. Method: This was a cross-sectional study. A total of 239 adults (M_age = 32; 57.7% male; 67.8% Caucasian) completed online measures via Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Bivariate analyses were conducted to assess if higher levels of interpersonal hopelessness were associated with lower levels of help-seeking intentions and behaviors in individuals experiencing STBs within the previous 6 months. To distinguish interpersonal hopelessness from other variables that may affect help-seeking, social anxiety, interpersonal problems, general hopelessness, and perceived barriers to treatment were also examined using hierarchical regression. Results: Results showed that interpersonal hopelessness was significantly positively correlated with help-seeking intentions and behaviors. The proportion of variance in help-seeking intentions and behaviors accounted for by interpersonal hopelessness was negligible. Limitations: The data were self-reported and collected retrospectively making them susceptible to biases. Although an important first step, the cross-sectional design also limits examination of temporal or causal relationships between study variables. Furthermore, the use of an MTurk sample introduces additional limitations, as well as the limited psychometric evaluation of two measures. Conclusion: Results indicate that although interpersonal hopelessness may be an important factor in suicide risk, it may not play a compelling role in help-seeking behaviors.