Objectives: The current study was aimed to identify the factors and mechanisms that promote nonsuicidal self-injury and suicidal ideation (SI) as precursors of suicidal behaviors in a sample of 553 Israeli active-duty soldiers.
Methods: A mediation model was used to examine the contribution of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, emotion-regulation difficulties, habituation, and risk-taking behaviors to soldiers' self-injury and SI.
Results: Results indicated direct effects between PTSD symptoms and self-injury and SI, as well as between emotion regulation difficulties and self-injury. Indirect effects were found between PTSD symptoms and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) through the mechanisms of habituation and risk-taking behavior and between difficulties in emotion regulation and NSSI through the mechanism of risk-taking behaviors.
Conclusion: To tackle soldiers' suicidal behaviors, clinicians might assess soldiers' PTSD symptoms and difficulties in emotion regulation and intervene by lessening their access to thrill-seeking situations and situations that increase habituation to pain and death.
Keywords: emotion regulation; habituation; military service; nonsuicidal self-Injury; posttraumatic symptoms; risk-taking; suicidal ideation.
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