(A)

Non-Clinical Populations (n = 17)
Author(s)	Study Design	Sample		Instrument Assessing MiL	SB-Related Variables
		Population	Size (N)		SI	SA	Completed Suicide	Other SB-Related Variables and/or Main Commentaries
Edwards and Holden, 2001 [27]	Cross-sectional	Undergraduate students	298	PIL, Sense of Coherence Scale	↓	↓	−	↓ Self-reported likelihood of future SB
Orbach et al., 2003 (study 2) [28]	Cross-sectional	Undergraduate students	98	LRI	−	−	−	MiL inversely related to mental pain
Wang et al., 2007 [1]	Cross-sectional	Undergraduate students	416	PIL	↓	↓	−	Mediation model: MiL mediated relationships between stress, coping, SI, and SA indirectly via an inverse effect on depression
Heisel and Flett, 2008 [29]	Cross-sectional	Elderly	107	GSIS Perceived MiL subscale	↓	−	−	−
Bjerkeset et al., 2010 [30]	Longitudinal prospective	Individuals aged 20+ yr, based on the Norwegian HUNT general population cohort	141,117	Self-reported measure of sense of MiL (n.sp.)	n.sp.	n.sp.	↓	A lower sense of MiL associated with increased suicide risk after controlling for common mental disorders that emerged during the survey
Kleiman et al., 2013 [31]	Longitudinal prospective	Undergraduate students	209	MLQ	↓	−	−	Mediated moderation model: gratitude and grit work synergistically to enhance MiL and confer resiliency to suicide by increasing MiL
Henry et al., 2014 [32]	Cross-sectional	Undergraduate students	2936	3-item MLQ	↓	−	−	Mediation model (female population): MiL could explain how bullying victimization leads to SI; moderation model (male population): effect of victimization on SI was attenuated as MiL increased
Wilchek-Aviad, 2015 [33]	Cross-sectional	Adolescents (Ethiopian immigrant and native-born Israeli)	277	PIL	−	−	−	↓ Suicidal tendencies (measured while accounting for depression and anxiety/emotional state) beyond one’s immigrant and native-born status
Denneson et al., 2015 [22]	Qualitative	Veterans	34	Semi-structured interviews	↓	−	−
Heisel and Flett, 2016 [34]	Longitudinal prospective	Elderly	126	EMIL, PIL	↓	−	−	−
Heisel et al., 2016 [35]	Longitudinal prospective	Elderly	109	EMIL	↓	−	−	Mediation model: MiL mediated associations between “Reasons for Living” and SI; it also explained the significant unique variance in SI
Wilchek-Aviad and Malka, 2016 [36]	Cross-sectional	Adolescents (Jewish religious and secular)	450	PIL	−	−	−	↓ Suicidal tendency (see above) beyond religiosity
Wilchek-Aviad et al., 2017 [37]	Cross-sectional	Adolescents (having different types of leisure time activities)	450	PIL	↓	−	−	MiL was greatest among adolescents involved in social endeavors, lower among those involved in solitary activities, and lowest among those not involved in any leisure activity
Wilchek-Aviad and Ne’eman-Haviv, 2018 [38]	Cross-sectional	Adolescent girls (disadvantaged at different stages of rehabilitation and normative)	209	PIL	−	−	−	↓ Suicidal potential (equivalent to the suicidal tendency, see above) among normative and disadvantaged adolescent girls residing in boarding schools
Schnell et al., 2018 [39]	Cross-sectional	Undergraduate students	300	Crisis of Meaning Scale	↓	↓	−	Crisis of meaning was distinguished from depression and predicted suicidality in youth independent of depression
Liu et al., 2018 [40]	Cross-sectional	Chinese professional employees	687	MLM	↓	−	−	Mediation model: MiL mediated relationships between psychological strain and SI
Testoni et al., 2018 [41]	Qualitative	Homeless people	55	Thematic and interpretative phenomenological analysis	↓	−	−	MiL was the most important reason for living; when it was considered unworkable, addiction/alcoholism represented a strategy to endure life in the street. Neither religiosity nor meaning of death were protective factors for addiction/alcoholism or SI