Suicide and Emotional Risk Factors

Self-injurious thoughts and behaviors occur most often in the context of negative emotions. Our research in this area seeks to better understand why people want to hurt themselves when what they desire is to feel better.

Sample Publications:

Franz, P., Fortgang, B., Millner, A., Jaroszewski, A., Wittler, E., Alpert, J., Buckholtz, J., & Nock, M. (2023). Examining tradeoffs between cognitive effort and relief among adults with self-injurious behavior. Journal of Affective Disorders, 321, 320-328.. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.10.029

Jaroszewski, A., Huettig, J., Kleiman, E., Franz, P., Millner, A., Joyce, V., Nash, C., & Nock, M. (2022). Examining implicit positive affect toward suicide among suicidal and nonsuicidal adults and adolescents. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 00 (1-12). https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12843 

Franz, P., Kleiman, E., & Nock, M. (2021). Reappraisal and suppression each moderate the relationship between stressful events and suicidal thinking: Preliminary evidence from a daily diary study. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 45, 1120-1127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-021-10214-8 

Kleiman, E., Coppersmith, D., Millner, A., Franz, P., Fox, K., & Nock, M. (2018). Are suicidal thoughts reinforcing? A preliminary real-time monitoring study on the affect regulation function of suicidal thinking. Journal of Affective Disorders, 232, 122-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.02.033