Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Graduate Department of Clinical Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. William Buhrow, PsyD

Second Advisor

Dr. Celeste Jones, PsyD

Third Advisor

Dr. Luann Foster, PsyD

Abstract

College students are amid their search for identity development, desire to meet social expectations, and are juggling stressors that often lead to mental health concerns including suicidality. The integrated motivational-volitional model of suicidal behavior has established a three-phase framework to describe the process of suicidality. Life factors and feelings of defeat lead to entrapment and suicidal ideation followed by suicidal ideation and behaviors, as influenced or intervened by moderating factors. This study used data from the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment III to further investigate the integrated motivational-volitional model and specifically the motivational phase and relationship between entrapment and suicidal ideation in college students. Stepwise linear and hierarchical regressions were conducted using the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment III data from Spring 2021, finding entrapment to predict 15% of the variance in suicidal ideation in this population. Motivational moderators including thwarted belongingness and burdensomeness were not found to be significant moderators between entrapment and suicidal ideation. However, thwarted belongingness accounted for an additional 4% of the variance in the model and burdensomeness accounted for an additional 8% of the variance in the model. This study further confirmed the importance of burdensomeness and belongingness as predictors of suicidality overall. Further research will be helpful to understand the accuracy of the motivational model of the integrated motivational-volitional model and entrapment’s role in suicidality.

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