The Mediating Role of Social Disconnection in the Relation of Cognitive Flexibility with Suicidal Thoughts in Elderly

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Psychology, Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardebil, Iran

2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili

3 Department of psychology, Faculty of educational science and psychology, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili

Abstract

Suicidal thoughts are common in elderly, while few studies have been conducted on the psychological factors related to this issue. The present study aimed to examine the mediating role of social disconnection in the relation of cognitive flexibility with suicidal thoughts in the elderly. This research was a descriptive-correlational study. The population of this study included all elderly individuals in nursing homes in Ardabil City in 2024. Two hundred thirty-seven elderly individuals were selected using purposive sampling and participated in this study. To collect data, Dennis and Vander Wal Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, Beck et al.'s Suicidal Thoughts Scale, and Saito et al.'s the Social Disconnection Scale were used. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling via the LISREL 8.8 software. The results of structural equating modeling showed that both cognitive flexibility and social disconnection had a significant direct effect on suicidal thoughts among the elderly. Furthermore, cognitive flexibility, through the mediation of social disconnection, had a significant indirect effect on suicidal thoughts (p<0.05). Furthermore, the fitness indexes showed that the hypothesized model has good fitness based on data. These results reveal that the low cognitive flexibility can indirectly expose individuals to suicidal thoughts through the creation of social disconnection. Based on these results, increasing cognitive flexibility and social connection are suggested for preventing suicidal thoughts in elderly.

Keywords

References

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