Reasons for living, positive psychological constructs and their relationship with suicide ideation in people with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury: A cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Positive psychological constructs such as reasons for living, self-esteem and resilience have previously been shown to act as protective psychological barriers against negative psychological outcomes, including suicide ideation in both clinical populations and the general population. This study aims to explore the positive psychological constructs of reasons for living, self-esteem, resilience and their relationship with suicide ideation and predictors of suicide ideation (depression, hopelessness) for N = 50 people who have a severe TBI and are currently receiving community rehabilitation at Liverpool Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit (LBIRU), NSW. Results indicated good reliability for the use of the RFLI with people who have TBI, with the most frequently endorsed subscale (range 0–5) being “survival and coping beliefs” (4.7 ± 1.0) and the least frequently being “fear of suicide” (2.2 ± 1.1). The shortened version of the RFLI (BRFLI) also displayed good reliability. Positive psychological constructs (reasons for living, resilience, self-esteem) were all significantly inversely associated with suicide and suicide predictors (depression, hopelessness). This study suggests that positive psychological constructs can act as a buffer against suicide ideation after moderate to severe TBI.

KEYWORDS:

• Traumatic brain injury
• Self-esteem
• Resilience
• Reasons for living
• Suicide ideation

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the people who participated in the study and the case managers at the Liverpool Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit who assisted with recruitment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.