Association of thought-action fusion to suicidal proneness, gender, and chronological age in adolescents
Abstract
Scope and Method of Study: The general purpose of this study was to explore the role of thought-action fusion within an American sample of community adolescents. Specifically, I looked to determine the influence of contextual variables (i.e. gender, age, and race) on thought-action fusion thinking in adolescents. Additionally, I also looked to determine whether thought-action fusion was associated with suicide prone behaviors, feelings, and thoughts. Participants were 260 urban high school adolescents. All participants who were under the legal of age of eighteen were required to get their parents consent and to give their assent before participating in the study. All participants who were emancipated or over the age of eighteen were required to give their informed consent to participate in the study. After permission was obtained to participate in the study, each participant was given a survey packet which included a demographic sheet, the TAFQ-A, and the LAS-SF to complete. Findings and Conclusions: In summary, I found that there were no age or gender differences in thought-action fusion thinking. However, I did find that African-American adolescents are more likely to use a thought-action fusion style of thinking compared to Caucasian adolescents. This finding is interesting considering we know relatively little about specific cognitive influences on African-American adolescent emotional distress. Future researchers may want to consider how thought-action fusion beliefs impact the onset of emotional distress (i.e. anxiety and depression) in African-American youth. Secondly, I also found that only thought-action fusion likelihood beliefs had a significant positive association with suicide prone behaviors, feelings, and thoughts. Additionally, I found that the combination of thought-action fusion beliefs only predicted 4% of the variance in suicide prone behaviors, feelings, and thoughts. However, in light of these results, I do not believe that thought-action fusion thinking is a practically significant predictor of suicide proneness in community adolescents. Although no direct was establish between thought-action fusion thinking and suicide proneness, future researchers should look at the indirect association between thought-action fusion and suicide proneness through such mediating variables as anxiety and depression.
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