The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide in Autistic and Non-autistic Adults, 2019

This dataset comprises 752 participant records of autistic, possibly autistic and non-autistic people who were invited via online survey to complete measures of thwarted belonging and perceived burdensomeness (the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire-10), suicidal capability (the Acquired Capability for Suicide Scale-Fearlessness About Death), lifetime trauma (the Vulnerabilities Experience Quotient), anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7) and depression (Patient Healthcare Questionnaire-9) with demographic data including age, gender identity, living and employment status, other neurodevelopmental conditions and mental health difficulties.<p>Autistic adults die more often by suicide than people who are not autistic and there is an absence of effective support for autistic people who experience suicidal thoughts and behaviours. One limiting factor is a lack of theoretically driven research to provide detailed insight into mechanisms driving suicide amongst autistic people. One research priority identified by the autism community is to explore the extent to which existing models of suicide describe the experiences of autistic people. Thus, this set of studies aims to explore this with reference to the most widely cited suicide theory, the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (Joiner 2005).</p>