Preventing suicide naturally: connection with nature attenuates suicidal thoughts (mostly) by decreasing entrapment

Abstract

Given the severity of suicide, identifying risk and prevention factors is high on the research agenda. We posit that connection with nature curtails suicidal thoughts. In particular, connection with nature can help individuals feel meaningful, improve their depressive mood, and avoid a sense of entrapment—factors that influence suicidal thoughts. Across nine studies (total N = 4093), we demonstrated that connection with nature can weaken suicidal thoughts, mainly through decreased entrapment relative to lower meaning in life or attenuated depressive mood. Although the observed effect has boundary conditions (connection with withered nature), these findings are independent of methodology (cross-sectional, field quasi-experimental, longitudinal, and laboratory experimental designs) or samples (a mix of university students and community members—all from China). The findings have implications for nature connectedness-based suicide theory as well as practitioners and policy-makers tasked with containing suicide.

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ORCID for Constantine Sedikides: orcid.org/0000-0003-4036-889X

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