Effects of Perceived Stress on Positive Ideation and Negative Suicide Ideation

Description

Page: 33-36

Varsha Pandey and Arun Kumar Jaiswal (Department of Psychology, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh)

The current study investigated how perceived stress influences men’s and women’s positive and negative suicidal thoughts. The sample included 300 men and women from Chowk and surrounding neighbourhoods in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. The Hindi versions of the Perceived Stress Scale and the Positive and Negative Suicide Inventories were individually administered to the subjects. Participants (men & women) who scored below the 25th percentile and above the 75th percentile on the components of perceived stress were screened out. The study used a 2 × 2 ANOVA (2 genders × 2 levels of perceived stress) to examine the impact of gender and perceived stress levels (low & high) on PANSI measures (positive & negative suicide ideation). The study found no significant main effects of gender on either positive or negative suicidal ideation. However, there were significant main effects of levels of uncontrollable perceived stress and controllable perceived stress facets on both positive and negative suicidal ideation. The interaction effects of ‘Gender × levels of uncontrollable perceived stress’ and ‘Gender × controllable perceived stress’ on both positive and negative suicidal ideation were also insignificant. These findings revealed that men and women did not differ significantly in terms of positive and negative suicide ideation; high as compared to low levels of uncontrolled perceived stress resulted in significantly less positive ideation and higher negative suicide ideation; and high as compared to low controllable perceived stress resulted in significantly more positive ideation and lower negative suicide ideation.