Historic and Recent Suicide Risk: Does Causality Orientation Matter?

Authors

Christopher Rainbow, Ruth Tatnell, Glenn A Melvin

Published in

Archives of suicide research : official journal of the International Academy for Suicide Research. Pages 1-15. Aug 14, 2026. Epub Aug 14, 2026.

Abstract

Low perceived control over suicidal urges has been associated with greater suicide risk. Within Self-Determination Theory, causality orientations are stable motivational drivers shaping beliefs about control over external events. Orientations are three separate but related dimensions varying in levels of perceived agency (autonomous, control, impersonal). This study is believed to be the first to explore relationships between causality orientations and suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs).
Participants were users of an Australian suicide safety planning smartphone app (N = 589) with a lifetime history of STBs. Measures included causality orientation, past-month suicidal ideation, future suicide intent, and lifetime suicidal behaviors. Correlations, logistic, and multiple regressions explored cross-sectional associations between causality orientations and STBs.
Low agency (impersonal orientation) was associated with higher past-month suicidal ideation and future suicide intent. Autonomous orientation was associated with greater odds of a lifetime suicide plan. Participants high on both impersonal and autonomous orientations reported higher past-month suicidal ideation and greater likelihood of a past-month suicide attempt. All effect sizes were small.
Causality orientations explain limited variance in lifetime and past-month STBs. Motivational beliefs reflecting futility (impersonal) or conflicted agency (impersonal + autonomous) may contribute modestly to suicidal distress alongside other risk factors. Future studies could examine real-time motivational drivers of STBs.

PMID:
42599719
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Aug 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.