Social Support and Positive Events as Suicide Resiliency Factors: Examination of Synergistic Buffering Effects

Abstract

This study examines the role of social support and positive events as protective factors in suicide. Participants (n = 379) were administered measures of social support, life events, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation. Results indicated that (1) social support had a direct protective effect on suicide ideation, (2) social support and positive events acted as individual buffers in the relationship between negative events and suicide ideation, and (3) social support and positive events synergistically buffered the relationship between negative events and suicide ideation. Our results provide evidence that positive events and social support act as protective factors against suicide individually and synergistically when they co-occur.

Keywords:

• life events
• protective factors
• social support
• suicide

Notes

Note. LES = Life Events Scale; MSPSS = Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support; BSS = Beck Suicide Scale; *p < .05, ***p < .001.

Note. CES-D = Center for Epidemiology Scale for Depression, CLSI = College Life Stress Inventory, MSPSS = Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. **p < .01, ***p < .001.

¹Given that suicidal ideation is typically a low base rate occurrence in college samples, a log transformation is appropriate to correct for the skewed data. We conducted analyses with and without log-transformed variables and generally had the same overall results with identical interpretation. Thus, we report results from the non-log transformed for ease of interpretation.

²Simple slope tests reported are from analyses conducted with interactions separately to avoid confounds with the other interaction.