A research team led by Dr Lee Seung Hoon and Dr Han Chang Soo from the Department of Psychiatry at Korea University Guro Hospital announced that higher psychological resilience is linked to reduced exposure to suicidal thoughts, planning, and attempts.
Psychological resilience refers to an individual’s ability to quickly recover and adapt after experiencing stress or adversity. Multiple studies have shown that higher psychological resilience is associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress.
The research team analyzed the relationship between psychological resilience and suicidal tendencies based on data from the 2021 Korean National Mental Health Survey (NMHSK), which involved a total of 5,511 Koreans aged 18 to 79. Specifically, they examined the connection between lifetime, one-year, and one-month incidences of suicidal tendencies (thoughts, planning, and attempts) and psychological resilience to evaluate its impact on suicidal tendencies.
The study found that individuals with suicidal tendencies exhibited lower psychological resilience. In particular, those who had experienced suicidal thoughts, planning, or attempts in their lifetime, over the past year, or in the past month had significantly lower resilience compared to those without such tendencies. People with higher resilience were found to have a relatively lower risk of suicidal thoughts, planning, or attempts.
Dr Lee stated, “This study highlights the importance of psychological resilience in suicide prevention among the general population. Resilience acts as a crucial protective factor against suicide, suggesting that early identification of individuals with suicidal tendencies and strengthening their resilience could be effective suicide prevention strategies.” He added, “We plan to continue our research to develop resilience enhancement programs tailored to individual patients’ psychological characteristics and situations.”
Dr Han emphasized, “This study shows that psychological resilience is an important factor in preventing suicidal tendencies. Individuals with high resilience had a significantly lower likelihood of suicidal thoughts, planning, or attempts, which suggests that strengthening resilience could be a new approach to suicide prevention.”
