The Moderator Rôle of Family Support between Depression and Suicidal Ideation: Discrepancy between Male and Female Military Population in Taiwan

The Moderator Rôle of Family Support between Depression and Suicidal Ideation: Discrepancy between Male and Female Military Population in Taiwan

In this study, the authors intended to study the moderator rôle of family support (FS) between depression and suicidal ideation (SI)as well as between the mediation effects of the following three components of the interpersonal theory of suicide - thwarted belongingness,perceived burdensomeness, and capacity for suicide among the military population. Methods: We enrolled 845 military active-duty personnel(male: female = 679: 166) who attended our mental health education series from 2017 to 2018 in Taiwan. The participants were asked tocomplete self-administrated copies of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire, the Acquired Capability for Suicide Scale, the Beck DepressionInventory, the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale for SI, and the family Adaptation, Partnership, Growth, Affection, and Resolve scalefor FS. After comparing baseline characteristics between genders, we did moderated mediation linear analysis, to clarify the moderationeffects of FS on the relationship between depression and SI as well as the possible mediation in the relationship. Results: In general, FS playsa protective moderator rôle in the depression à SI (Dep - SI) path (p < 0.05). In male samples, perceived burdensomeness was significantlymediated the effect of depression on SI (p < 0.05). But FS failed to reach a significant level for moderating the medication effect of perceivedburdensomeness on the Dep-SI pathway (p > 0.05). On the other hand, in female samples, perceived burdensomeness failed to significantlymediate the effect of depression on suicidal ideation (p > 0.05), but FS significantly and negatively moderated the effect of depression onperceived burdensomeness (p < 0.05). Otherwise, FS showed negative moderation effect for the effect of depression on capacity for suicidein the male samples (p < 0.05) although capacity for suicide failed to become a statistically significant mediator in the Dep-SI path (p > 0.05).Conclusion: In this study, we found that, among military population, a protective moderation effect of FS can reduce the effect of depressionon SI and different mechanisms between sexes. We suggest that programs improving FS could be another consideration for military suicidalprevention.