The moderating influence of primal world beliefs on the relationship between suicide cognitions and suicidal ideation

Negative, generalized beliefs about the self are strongly related to suicidal ideation (SI). However, no research has explicitly tested cognitive theories that distress can emerge from the intersection of negative beliefs about the self, one's future, and the world. Primal world beliefs are theorized to be stable, fundamental beliefs individuals hold about the character of the surrounding world. This study investigated the interrelationships between suicide-related cognitions and primal world beliefs as well as whether primal world beliefs moderate the well-established relationship between suicide-cognitions and suicidal ideation (SI).

Participants included N = 257 undergraduate psychology students who endorsed past-two-week SI and N = 350 community adults who endorsed past-week SI. Participants completed self-report measures of variables of interest in these cross-sectional investigations.

For both the undergraduate students and community adults, all primal world beliefs were positively correlated with suicide cognitions. Contrary to hypotheses, believing that the world is generally unsafe attenuated the relationship between suicide cognitions and SI in the undergraduate sample; however, this moderation effect was not replicated in the adult sample. No other primal world beliefs moderated the relationship between SI and suicide cognitions in either sample.

Although primal world beliefs may not moderate the relationship between SI and suicide cognitions, the presence of a relationship between suicide cognitions and primals potentially suggests a continued need to investigate primal world beliefs and other overly negative world beliefs in relation to risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors.