Psychological maltreatment, meaning-centered coping, psychological flexibility, and suicide cognitions: A moderated mediation model

Abstract

Background: Mental health problems are currently diversifying, increasing the possibility of suicide. Exposure to psychological maltreatment is one of the factors that increases suicidal cognitions. In addition, psychological flexibility and meaning-centered approaches may be effective in coping with suicidal cognitions.

Objective: A hypothesized model was tested to examine the relationships among psychological maltreatment, suicidal cognitions, psychological flexibility, and meaning-centered coping.

Method: Data were collected from a sample of 652 participants. Mediation and moderation analyses were conducted to examine the mediating and moderating role of psychological flexibility and meaning-centered coping in the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and suicide cognitions among Turkish adults.

Results: The results of the study indicated significant negative and positive relationships between psychological maltreatment, suicide cognitions, psychological flexibility, and meaning-centered coping. The findings suggest that psychological flexibility and meaning-centered coping have a serial mediating effect on the relationship between psychological maltreatment and suicide cognitions. Furthermore, according to the study results, psychological flexibility plays a moderating role both between psychological maltreatment and suicidal cognitions and between meaning-centered coping and suicidal cognitions.

Conclusions: The study suggests that psychological maltreatment can be considered as a risk factor and meaning-centered coping and psychological flexibility as protective factors in suicide prevention studies.

Keywords: Meaning-centered coping; Psychological flexibility; Psychological maltreatment; Suicide cognitions.