US age-adjusted suicide rates increased by 33 per cent from 1999 to 2017 (Hedegard et al., 2018). Communications about suicide and death are a commonly cited warning sign (SPRC, 2014) and are foundational to the vast majority of risk assessment, prevention and intervention practices. Suicidal communications are critically understudied despite their implications for prevention and intervention practices. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between five factor model personality traits and forms of suicidal communications.
A sample of 154 people admitted to emergency psychiatry for suicide ideation or attempt completed self-report measures about their suicide ideation and behavior. Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA examined differences between five-factor model personality domains and forms of communications.
There were no significant differences; however, two nonsignificant trends related to indirect or non-communication and extraversion and openness emerged.
Future studies should focus on using more nuanced measures of dimensional personality and suicidal communications.
This study is the first to examine differences in the Five-Factor Model personality traits and suicidal communications.
