EMI Repayment Stress and Suicidal Ideation Risk among Indian Retail Borrowers Using PLS SEM and the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide

<title>Abstract</title> <p>Household over-indebtedness is an escalating feature of India's rapidly expanding retail-credit economy. Rising equated monthly instalment (EMI) obligations have been repeatedly implicated in suicide statistics as a contextual factor linked to severe financial distress. Despite high policy salience, individual-level empirical research examining the psychological pathways connecting debt repayment stress to suicidal ideation risk remains scarce in the Indian context. Grounded in the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide and Beck's Hopelessness Theory, this study develops and tests a structural model in which EMI Debt Repayment Burden predicts Financial Anxiety, Perceived Burdensomeness, and Thwarted Belongingness. These psychological states, together with Hopelessness, are modelled as pathways to Suicidal Ideation Risk, with Perceived Social Support acting as a protective factor. Using a sample of Indian retail borrowers analyzed via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), the measurement model demonstrated strong reliability and validity (\(\:\text{AVE}&gt;0.65\); \(\:\text{HTMT}&lt;0.60\)). Debt Repayment Burden significantly predicted Financial Anxiety (\(\:\beta\:=0.400\)), Perceived Burdensomeness (\(\:\beta\:=0.420\)), and Thwarted Belongingness (\(\:\beta\:=0.265\)). Hopelessness (\(\:\beta\:=0.373\)), Perceived Burdensomeness (\(\:\beta\:=0.188\)), and Thwarted Belongingness (\(\:\beta\:=0.182\)) significantly predicted Suicidal Ideation Risk, explaining 38.6% of its variance (\(\:{R}^{2}=0.386\)). Bootstrapped mediation analysis confirmed significant indirect pathways through burdensomeness, belongingness, and hopelessness. Findings highlight that relational strain and perceived burdensomeness, rather than financial hardship in isolation, are central mechanisms linking EMI stress to suicide risk.</p>