Intro: The relationship between suicide ideation (SI) and distress tolerance (DT) is characterized by inconclusive results. The current study aimed to test the association between tolerance for interpersonal distress and SI in light of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide.
Methods: 194 participants ranging in SI severity were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk and completed a cognitive distress task (Distress Tolerance Task) and an interpersonal distress task (CyberBall) to assess (1) the association between SI severity and persistence with the tasks, and (2) self-reported psychological distress associated with the tasks.
Results: A series of multilevel model analyses showed that increased SI predicted greater persistence with the interpersonal-distress task versus the cognitive distress task. In addition, higher SI predicted more distress during the interpersonal task.
Conclusions: Individuals with higher SI levels demonstrated a greater capability to persist with the interpersonal distress, despite feeling psychologically worse. These findings further support the central role of interpersonal needs in SI by emphasizing the importance of operationalizing DT in a manner that is relevant to suicide desire.
Keywords: Cyberball; distress tolerance; distress tolerance task; interpersonal theory of suicide; social exclusion; suicide ideation.
SI is associated with persisting longer in interpersonally distressing situations.SI is also associated with higher levels of distress following social exclusion.In SI research the specific type of distress needs to be accurately operationalized.