Death Anxiety and Suicidal Behavior

In Joiner’s Interpersonal Theory of Suicide, those who are planning to die by suicide have to overcome their fear of death in addition to acquiring the capacity for self-harm. The present study sought to examine this proposal in a sample of 1,145 university students in China. Those who had planned to dye by suicide in the past had less death anxiety than non-suicidal students and those who had suicidal ideation or made attempts at suicide in the past. The implications of this result were discussed.