Social Interactions among Older Adults Who Wish for Death

ABSTRACT

Objectives: When the need for relatedness is frustrated, some older adults feel that life is not worth living and wish for death (WD). The aim of this study was to look at the perception of social interactions among older adults who express the WD.

Methods: A probabilistic sample of 2787 French-speaking community-dwelling older adults aged 65 to 96 years (M = 73.8) took part in the Seniors Health Survey, a study on the prevalence of mental disorders which also collected information on various demographic and social variables.

Results: Results showed that 5% of participants expressed WD. Participants who WD felt significantly more isolated and in conflict with their children than participants without WD. When sociodemographic variables, self-rated physical health, and depression were controlled, three social variables predicted WD in a logistic regression: being distant toward others, dissatisfaction with social life, and a lack of participation in organizations.

Conclusions: Results of the present study support the interpersonal theory of suicide, which suggests that self-reported thwarted belongingness can foster WD.

Clinical implications: Clinicians should consider social dissatisfaction and withdrawal as risk factors for WD and design interventions that foster social skills or meaningful connections.

KEYWORDS:

• Wish for death
• wish to die
• aging
• older adults
• interpersonal relationships
• social interaction
• isolation

Clinical implications

• Clinicians should consider social withdrawal and dissatisfaction with social life as risk factors for WD.

• Interventions that foster social skills or that address the intrapersonal aspects of thwarted belongingness could be interesting additions to the prevention of WD.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Only two participants did not meet sufficient diagnostic criteria to keep their depression diagnosis after WD item was removed.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (200403MOP) and the Fonds de Recherche en Santé du Québec (ref: 9854).