Early Life Trauma, Suicide Ideation, and Suicide Attempts: The Role of Rumination and Impulsivity

Abstract

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young adults in the United States. One of the many risk factors for suicide includes exposure to early life trauma. The present study examined whether rumination and impulsivity play a role in the relationship between early life trauma and increased risk for suicidal behavior (i.e., suicide ideation and suicide attempts) among 426 young adults. Early life trauma was associated with brooding, reflective rumination, and impulsivity in the form of negative urgency. Current or recent suicide ideators self-reported greater early life trauma, ruminative thinking, and impulsivity than non-ideators and non-attempters. Further, a multinomial logistic regression found that early life trauma, reflection, lack of premeditation, and lack of perseverance were associated with higher odds of reporting suicide ideation in the previous 6 months. We also found indirect relationships between early life trauma and suicide ideation through brooding or reflection and lack of perseverance in serial mediation analyses. These findings suggest that early life trauma may increase risk of suicide ideation to the degree that it leads to ruminative thinking and lack of follow-through with difficult tasks. How early life trauma might increase risk for ruminative thinking, impulsivity, and subsequent suicidal behavior is discussed.

Keywords:

• Early life trauma
• rumination
• impulsivity
• suicide ideation
• suicide attempts

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Jennie Harrigan, Erika Kincaid, Diana Ribeiro, Alliya Shafi, Audrey Sheppard, and Sylvia Tesseyman, for their assistance with data collection. The authors have no conflict of interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by NIH grant GM060665 and by a grant from the CUNY Doctoral Student Research Grant Competition.

Notes on contributors

Jorge Valderrama

Jorge Valderrama, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, New York, NY, USA; Department of Psychology, Hunter College, City University of New York, NY, USA; Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, NY, USA.

Natalia Macrynikola

Natalia Macrynikola, Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, NY, USA.

Regina Miranda

Regina Miranda, Department of Psychology, Hunter College, City University of New York, NY, USA; Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, NY, USA.