Pusan National University Researchers Map Psychological Patterns Linked to Suicidal Ideation Across Four Countries

Researchers compared psychological networks in Italy, Korea, the UK, and the US, identifying broadly shared patterns alongside country-specific differences.

BUSAN, South Korea, Oct. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Suicidal ideation (SI) can arise from motivational, interpersonal, and protective factors. Yet it remains unclear which psychological experiences are associated with SI across countries and which may depend on context. The study examined these relationships through a psychosocial network approach, combining suicide theories with social comparison and reasons for living. The analysis therefore examined the relationships among these experiences as a connected system, while also considering whether similar associations appeared consistently or differed across the four countries included in the study examined here.

The research team was led by Professor Eun-Jung Shim from the Department of Psychology at Pusan National University, Busan, South Korea, in collaboration with doctoral student Dapin Cho from the same department and Professor Rory O'Connor and Dr. Banu Cankaya Sahin from the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory at the University of Glasgow, UK. They examined 2,018 adults aged 18–60 years in Italy, Korea, the UK, and the US. Participants completed measures of SI severity, defeat and entrapment, perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, social comparison, relative deprivation, and reasons for living. Researchers estimated country-specific networks. This paper was made available online on September 6, 2026 and will be published in Volume 415 of the Journal of Affective Disorders on December 15, 2026.

The overall network contained 39 connections. The strongest links were between ability- and opinion-based comparison, defeat and internal entrapment, and fear of social disapproval and moral objections. SI was directly associated with perceived burdensomeness, defeat, and internal entrapment, while survival and coping beliefs were negatively associated with SI. Defeat had the highest expected influence centrality, whereas perceived burdensomeness had the greatest relative importance for SI. The model explained 25.16% of SI severity variance.

"Perceived burdensomeness showed the strongest direct association with suicidal ideation, while defeat and internal entrapment were more central within the wider psychosocial network," explains Prof. Shim.

Country-specific analyses showed broadly similar structures alongside differences. Defeat was directly linked to SI in Italy, Korea, and the UK, but not in the US. Perceived burdensomeness was directly linked to SI in Italy, the UK, and the US, but not in Korea. Survival and coping beliefs were negatively associated with SI in the UK and Italy. Ability-based comparison was linked to defeat only in Korea. Explained variance ranged from 20.74% in Korea to 39.71% in the UK.

Prof. Shim said, "These findings suggest that understanding SI may require attention to both experiences that are closely linked with suicidal thoughts and those that are interconnected multiple psychological processes."

The findings may inform suicide prevention by highlighting the broader psychological context of suicidal thoughts, including perceived burdensomeness, defeat, entrapment, and reasons for living. However, the cross-sectional design cannot establish causality, and country differences should not be viewed as fixed cultural characteristics.

Overall, the study identified shared and context-dependent patterns in suicidal ideation. Longitudinal follow-up is now being analysed to examine how these psychological processes change over time and relate to subsequent suicidal ideation.

Reference

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