Presence of trauma and suicide risk: Personal control as a moderator

ABSTRACT

Given past findings that have linked trauma and lack of personal control to greater suicidal risk in adults, the present study examined how trauma presence and personal control are uniquely involved in predicting suicidal risk in a sample of 469 college students. Regression analyses indicated that both trauma presence and personal control were significant predictors of suicidal risk, as was their interaction. The present findings suggest a need to consider both trauma presence and low personal control in assessing for suicidal risk in college students.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank members of the Perfectionism and Optimism-Pessimism (POP) Lab for providing helpful feedback on earlier versions of the present work. In addition, the first author would like to acknowledge Tae Myung-Sook and Chang Suk-Choon for their encouragement and support throughout this project.