"Paid yesterday, broke today": the impact of employment and financial instability on suicidal thinking and behaviour in Scotland

This research aims to explore the links between insecure employment, financial insecurity, and suicidal thinking and behaviour for adults living in Scotland. The project was a collaboration between Strathclyde University and Samaritans Scotland and had the following key aims:

(1) To understand if people who have experienced insecure employment and financial instability are more likely to think about suicide and/or attempt to take their own life.

(2) To explore how insecure employment and financial instability are associated with suicidal thoughts and/or behaviours by examining the role of a range of psychological factors we know to be associated with suicide risk. That is, do these challenging financial and employment experiences increase people’s exposure to psychological factors that are linked to a greater risk of both becoming suicidal and acting on thoughts of suicide.