A Suicide Prevention Approach: Expanding One’s Time Perspective

Abstract

The current study examined the efficacy of a 1 month future time perspective modification intervention over a 1 month and 6 months period. Participants (N = 92) with elevated scores on measures of depressive symptoms or suicidal ideation were assigned to either the intervention condition or a no-intervention control condition. A repeated-measures manova revealed that those in the time perspective modification intervention condition showed significant reductions in psychache and hopelessness at 1 month, relative to those in the control condition. Repeated-measures manovas did not reveal significantly greater changes in depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, or future time perspective. No results at 6 months were found to be significant. These results suggest that a future time perspective modification intervention can reduce important predictors of suicidality, although the sustainability of these gains and their relation to suicide is unclear.