RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of dispositional mindfulness on suicidal ideation and its moderating effect on the relationships between depressive symptoms and borderline personality traits, and suicidal ideation. METHODS: A sample of 1034 students from France (818 women, mean age=20.1±2; 216 men, mean age=20.6±2.2) completed the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form (FFMQ-SF), assessing dispositional mindfulness, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) assessing depression symptoms; the borderline personality disorder scale of the Personality Disorder Questionnaire-4th Edition (PDQ-4), and the three-item scale measuring suicidal ideation proposed by Garrison et al. (1991). RESULTS: At least occasional wish to kill oneself was reported by 11% of men and 10% of women. Thirty-eight percent of men and 47% of women had moderate to severe depressive symptoms (P<.001). The mean borderline personality traits score for women was higher than for men (33.44±10.56 versus 31.48±10.35; P=.02), and the mean dispositional mindfulness score for men was higher than for women (77.99±12.3 versus 73.4±12.1; P<.001). In order to explore the role of mindfulness as a moderator between depressive symptoms/borderline traits and the wish to kill oneself, multiple regression analyses were performed separately by gender according to the method of Hayes (2013). To assess whether the presence of dispositional mindfulness decreased the risk for persons with depressive symptoms/borderline personality traits to have suicidal ideation, the effect of the interaction between these disorders and dispositional mindfulness was tested by introducing in a second regression the cross product of these two variables. To assert moderation we had to observe that the interaction explained an additional part of the variance of suicidal ideation. For men, in the first multiple regression analysis, the FFMQ-SF score and PHQ-9 score both explained 32% of the variance of suicidal ideation (R2=.32, s.e.=1.42). In the second analysis, the prediction level of depressive symptoms and dispositional mindfulness scores had decreased. The interaction between dispositional mindfulness and depressive symptoms was a significant predictor in the second stage (ß=-.26; t=-4.48, P<.001), accounting for an additional 6% of the variance of suicidal ideation (R2=.38, s.e.=1.36). For women, in the first multiple regression analysis, the FFMQ-SF score and PHQ-9 score both explained 25% of the variance of suicidal ideation (R2=.25, s.e.=1.29). In the second analysis, the prediction level of depressive symptoms and dispositional mindfulness scores had slightly decreased. The interaction between dispositional mindfulness and depressive symptoms was a significant predictor in the second stage (ß=-.16; t=-5.34, P<.001), accounting for an additional 3% of the variance of suicidal ideation (R2=.28, s.e.=1.26). For men, in the first multiple regression analysis, the FFMQ-SF score and PDQ-4 subscale score both explained 23% of the variance of suicidal ideation (R2=.23, s.e.=1.51). In the second analysis, the prediction level of borderline personality traits and dispositional mindfulness scores had decreased. The interaction between dispositional mindfulness and borderline personality traits was a significant predictor in the second stage (ß=-.27; t=-4.68, P<.001), accounting for an additional 7% of the variance of suicidal ideation (R2=.30, s.e.=1.44). For women, in the first multiple regression analysis, the FFMQ-SF score and PDQ-4 subscale score both explained 24% of the variance of suicidal ideation (R2=.24, s.e.=1.30). In the second analysis, the prediction level of borderline personality traits and dispositional mindfulness scores remained the same. The interaction between dispositional mindfulness and borderline personality traits was a significant predictor in the second stage (ß=-.19; t=-6.30, P<.001) accounting for an additional 3% of the variance of suicidal ideation (R2=.27, s.e.=1.27). CONCLUSIONS: Dispositional mindfulness appeared to be a moderator between depressive symptoms/borderline personality traits and the wish to kill oneself in both genders. This finding is relevant for prevention and therapy and suggests that mindfulness may be important and useful to reduce suicidal ideation and prevent suicidal attempts in young adults.