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Symposia

Suicide and Self-Injury

Session: Dynamic Resilience: Modifiable Factors Buffering Risk for Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors

2 - (SYM 146) Grit and Resilience as Protective Factors for Nonsuicidal Self-injury and Suicide Risk in Young Adults

Sunday, November 19, 2023
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Location: Skykomish (604), Level 6
Suicide remains a leading cause of death for young adults, and nonsuicidal self-injury also has high prevalence in this age group. Research is lacking on protective factors for nonsucidal and suicidal self-harm; identifying potentially modifiable factors that could decrease risk for self-harm would be extremely beneficial. Two potential protective factors are grit and resilience. Grit is defined as passion and perseverance for working toward long-term goals (Duckworth et al., 2007), and negatively associates with suicide ideation in samples of college students (Clement et al., 2020; Pennings et al., 2015). Resilience can be defined as bouncing back from adversity, but also as a compensatory trait-like factor that associates with reduced self-harm outcomes across all risk levels (Wright et al., 2013). In the current study, it was hypothesized that grit and resilience would negatively associate with likelihood of lifetime NSSI and overall suicide risk.

Data were collected from 492 young adults between the ages of 18-27 who were enrolled at a mid-sized public university in the south-central United States. The majority identified as female (70%), heterosexual (63%), and white (81.8%). Participants completed self-report measures through Qualtrics, including the Short Grit Scale, the Brief Resilience Scale, items assessing lifetime NSSI, and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R).

Binary logistic regression was used to examine the association between grit and resilience and likelihood of lifetime NSSI. The overall model was significant (χ²(2) = 37.98, p < .001) and accounted for 10% of the overall variance. Both grit (OR=0.538, p < .001) and resilience (OR=0.656, p< .001) were associated with decreased likelihood of lifetime NSSI. Linear regression was used to examine the association between grit and resilience and overall suicide risk (SBQ-R total score). The overall model was significant, F (2,475) = 84.78, p < .001, and accounted for 26.4% of the variance. Both grit (β= -.128, p=.003) and resilience (β= -.453, p< .001) were significantly and negatively associated with overall suicide risk.

Grit and trait resilience show potential as protective factors for suicidal and nonsuicidal self-harm in young adults. Large-scale prevention, or more targeted intervention efforts, for this age group may focus on building skills in coping, perseverance, and managing stress.