and Suicidal Ideation: Multiple Pathways to Self-Injurious Thinking

In order to advance the detection and prevention of suicide, recent research has focused on predictors of suicidal ideation and behavior such as negative cogni-tive styles, dysfunctional attitudes, hopelessness, and rumination. In this study the relationships among these risk factors in the context of the Attention Mediated Hopelessness (AMH) theory of depression are examined. One hundred and twenty-seven undergraduates in the Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression (CVD) project were followed for 2.5 years. The CVD project followed initially nonde-pressed freshmen, at either high or low cognitive risk for depression, in order to predict onsets and recurrences of depressive disorders. The presence and duration of suicidal ideation were predicted prospectively by rumination and hopelessness, and hopelessness partially mediated the relationship between rumination and ide-ation and fully mediated the association between rumination and duration of sui-cidality. Further, rumination mediated the relationship between cognitive vulnera-bility and suicidal ideation. Suicide is the third leading cause of death end, and attempted and completed suicide o