Social Support and Positive Events as Suicide Resiliency Factors: Examination of Synergistic Buffering Effects

This study examines the role of social support and positive events as protective factors in suicide. Participants (n=379) were administered measures of social support, life events, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation. Results indicated that (1) social support had a direct protective effect on suicide ideation, (2) social support and positive events acted as individual buffers in the relationship between negative events and suicide ideation, and (3) social support and positive events synergistically buffered the relationship between negative events and suicide ideation. Our results provide evidence that positive events and social support act as protective factors against suicide individually and synergistically when they co-occur.