An examination of the mediating role of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in the complex relationship between interpersonal needs and suicidal behavior

BackgroundStudies have shown that psychological factors, notably interpersonal needs and emotion regulation, play a significant role in suicidal behavior. Interpersonal needs are significant contextual components that affect emotion regulation and contribute to a wide range of dysfunctional behaviors, such as suicidal behavior. It has been postulated that emotion regulation mediates the associations between proximal and distal risk factors of suicidal behavior.MethodThe sample consisted of 340 community-dwelling individuals (62.5% women; SD = 0.48) with an age range of 18 through 55 (M = 30.23; SD = 8.54) who completed the interpersonal needs questionnaire, the suicide behaviors questionnaire-revised, and the cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach was utilized to evaluate a mediation model.ResultsThe findings indicate that interpersonal needs (i.e., perceived burdensomeness r = .55, p