Abstract

Objective

Disturbances in interpersonal functioning are prevalent in individuals with suicidality. Foundational for interpersonal functioning is theory of mind (ToM), a social-cognitive ability that allows individuals to understand the thoughts and feelings of others. Recent work has begun to investigate ToM performance in individuals with suicidality, though no review has quantitatively aggregated findings from these varied studies. The current study investigated the relations between ToM and suicidality with meta-analysis.

Method

We identified and meta-analyzed 15 studies that presented data for 2,895 participants (617 of whom had reported at least one suicide attempt).

Results

Results indicated a significant, negative relation between ToM and suicidality with a medium overall effect size (g = −.475). Moderator analyses revealed that this effect was consistent across age, sex, ToM content, and suicidal outcome.

Conclusion

Deficits in ToM associated with suicidality hold promise for risk-identification, treatment, and prevention work.

• Highlights

• Theory of mind (ToM) abilities are critical for effective interpersonal functioning.

• Meta-analytics results indicate that ToM deficits are associated with suicidality.

• Identifying such suicidality-related ToM deficits may inform risk-identification, treatment, and prevention work.

中文翻译：

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心理理论与自杀：荟萃分析

摘要

客观的

人际功能障碍在有自杀倾向的人中普遍存在。人际功能的基础是心理理论 (ToM)，这是一种社会认知能力，使个人能够理解他人的想法和感受。最近的工作已经开始调查有自杀倾向的个体的 ToM 表现，尽管没有评论定量汇总这些不同研究的结果。目前的研究通过荟萃分析探讨了 ToM 与自杀倾向之间的关系。

方法

我们确定并荟萃分析了 15 项研究，这些研究提供了 2,895 名参与者的数据（其中 617 名参与者报告了至少一次自杀企图）。

结果

结果表明，ToM 与自杀率之间存在显着的负相关关系，总体效应大小中等 ( g = −.475)。调节者分析显示，这种效应在年龄、性别、ToM 内容和自杀结果方面是一致的。

结论

与自杀相关的 ToM 缺陷为风险识别、治疗和预防工作带来了希望。

• 强调

• 心智理论 (ToM) 能力对于有效的人际交往至关重要。

• 荟萃分析结果表明 ToM 缺陷与自杀倾向相关。

• 识别此类与自杀相关的 ToM 缺陷可以为风险识别、治疗和预防工作提供信息。