THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUICIDE IDEATION, DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AND PERSONALITY TRAITS IN ELDERLY: PILOT STUDY RESULTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17770/sie2018vol1.3273Keywords:
elderly, depression symptoms, personality traits, suicidal ideationAbstract
Healthy aging and the research on the related factors is one of the World Health Organization's priorities for the 2020-2030 years. Depression and suicidal ideation can adversely affect an individual's aging experience. Personality traits are important factors that allow to predict the individual's behavior in different situations, as well as the accurance of emotional difficulties. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between symptoms of depression, suicidal ideation and personality traits in elderly, and to determine whether the relationship between personality traits and suicidal ideation remains statistically significant after controlling the severity of depression symptoms. Thirty nine respondents aged 65 and over were included in the pilot study (M = 71.23; SD = 4.95). The Latvian Clinical Personality Inventory (LCPI) was used for data collection. The results indicate a statistically significant relationship between several personality traits, depression symptoms and suicidal ideation for elderly. Controlling the severity of depression symptoms, statistically significant correlations were found between suicidal ideation and personality traits such as distrust, social withdrawal, self-harm, dissociation proneness on facet level and introversion on domain level. The results of the pilot study largely coincide with the results of previous studies and indicate that certain personality traits, irrespective of the degree of severity of depression symptoms, can explain an additional variation in suicidal thoughts and, hence, the risk of suicide for elderly. It would be important to conduct a study with similar variables in a larger sample.References
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