Cumulative Stressors and Traumas and Suicide: A Non-Linear Cusp Dynamic Systems Model

Abstract

The unpredictability of suicide is one of the mental health challenges. Based on the threshold model cumulative stressors and traumas interact with a person’s characteristics to produce non-linearly suicidality. The current study tests this non-linear relationship using Catastrophe cusp theory. We used cumulative stressors and traumas (CST) as bifurcation control factor and age as asymmetry control factor and suicide as outcome Cusp factor. We utilized three combined previously collected data sets (N = 967) from Western (the UK, N = 177) and non-Western countries (Egypt: N = 490, and Kuwait: N = 300). The combined dataset included 22% adolescents, 40.2% males. Age ranged from 14 - 75. The measures included cumulative stressors and traumas, interfaith spirituality, religiosity, and identity salience and suicidality. Further, we used measures of interfaith spirituality, religiosity, and identity salience to explore some of the protective factors. We used correlation, curve estimation regression and Cusp catastrophe statistical method to test the hypothesis of the non-linear threshold cusp (sudden shift) model. The explained variance by Cusp catastrophe model non-linear model was highly superior (R2 = 0.762) to the linear model (R2 = 0.045) in predicting suicidality. Further, results found that interfaith spirituality, religiosity, and identity salience were powerful protective factors from the sudden emergence of suicidality. We discussed the implications of the results to the conceptualization, prevention, and interventions with suicidal behavior.