Understanding suicidal ideation-a network analysis of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire

Katharina Conrad; Thomas Forkmann; Dajana Schreiber; Tobias Teismann; Heide Glaesmer; Lena Spangenberg; Antje Schönfelder; Nina Hallensleben; Laura Paashaus; Georg Juckel; Inken Höller

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0293026

Understanding suicidal ideation-a network analysis of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire

PLoS One. 2023 Nov 13;18(11):e0293026. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293026. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
² Faculty of Psychology, Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
³ Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, LWL-University Hospital, Ruhr-University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
⁵ Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Charlotte Fresenius Hochschule, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Abstract

Introduction: Identifying various interacting risk factors for suicidality is important to develop preventive measures. The Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior (IPTS) postulates suicidal ideation resulting from the occurrence of Perceived Burdensomeness (PB) and Thwarted Belongingness (TB). Suicidal behavior ultimately occurs if people have a Capability for Suicide. In past studies, the validity of TB was often not empirically confirmed, questioning which of the aspects of TB are central and related to suicidal ideation and whether applied measurement methods adequately capture the construct.

Method: Using a sample of 3,404 individuals from different clinical and nonclinical settings, 30% (1,023) of whom reported suicidal ideation, two network analyses were conducted on the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ) and a variable mapping suicidal ideation.

Results: Analyses revealed that some items of the INQ were not related to suicidal ideation and the most central items did not have the strongest associations to suicidal ideation.

Conclusion: Based on these results, a shortened version of the INQ with the four items that showed the strongest associations with suicidal ideation in the network analyses was suggested.

Copyright: © 2023 Conrad et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Psychological Theory
Risk Factors
Suicidal Ideation*
Suicide* / psychology
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

Parts of the study were funded by a grant from the German Research Society (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) to Heide Glaesmer (GL 818/3-1), Thomas Forkmann (FO 784/3-1), Tobias Teismann (TE 747/4-1), and Georg Juckel (JU 366/8-1) as well as a grant from the DFG to Lena Spangenberg (SP 1556/1-1), Heide Glaesmer (GL 818/1-1), and Thomas Forkmann (FO 784/1-1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.