Relationship between life skills, repetitive negative thinking, family function, and life satisfaction in attempted suicide

BACKGROUND: Impaired life skills, family dysfunction, negative thinking and low life satisfaction may predispose to suicidal behavior. There is paucity of study that examined these variables in suicide attempt. AIMS: This study was conducted to know the levels and the relationships of these variables in attempted suicide. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Hospital-based cross-sectional. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this hospital-based cross-sectional study, 328 participants with a history of attempted suicide were assessed using socio-demographic and clinical pro forma, life skills profile (LSP), perseverative thinking questionnaire (PTQ), satisfaction with life scale (SLS), and family assessment device (FAD) after obtaining informed consent. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics, Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis-H test and regression analysis. RESULTS: Results revealed a mean scores on PTQ, LSP, SLS, and FAD to be 29.93 (standard deviation [SD] =13.5), 21.32 (SD = 13.5), 15.71 (SD = 6.8), and 26.46 (SD = 4.57), respectively. In linear regression analysis (R(2) = 0.815, df = 3, F = 475.715, P = 0.001), LSP score had a statistically significant positive association with PTQ score (beta = 0.861, t = 32.76, P = 0.001) and FAD score (beta = 0.068, t = 2.79, P = 0.0046); while negative association with SLS score (beta = −0.078, t = −2.92, P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: The study findings suggest of impaired life skills, life dissatisfaction, impaired family function, and elevated repetitive negative thinking pattern in attempted suicide. Better life skills have a positive association with higher life satisfaction, family function, and low repetitive thinking and thus seem to have a protective effect against suicidal behavior in the population.