Reactions to the family of the suicide.
The present study investigated reactions to the survivors of a family member's suicide. One hundred and twenty seven adults, members of a large urban Protestant church, responded to a newspaper account of a suicide in which the following factors were systematically varied: sex of the suicide, causal locus of the suicide, and whether the cause was prior or immediate to the suicide. The design was a 2 (sex of respondent) x 2 (sex of suicide) x 2 (locus of cause internal or external to the individual) x 2 (temporally remote cause or immediate cause). Results indicated a slight tendency for males to be somewhat more socially accepting of the surviving spouse of a suicide. There was also a significant interaction between sex of respondent x sex of the suicide, such that respondents indicated they would feel less tension in talking with the surviving family of a suicide of the same sex.
D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012917:Social Adjustment; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology*