Suicide attempts in preadolescent child psychiatry inpatients.
This paper describes a preliminary study examining the relative power of measures of perceived family support, hopelessness, and depression for the classification of suicide attempters and nonattempters in a series of 8- to 13-year-old psychiatric inpatients. Results of a stepwise discriminant-function analysis indicated that a measure of a child's perceived family support discriminated between suicide attempters and nonattempters with an 88% accuracy rate. The addition of measures of hopelessness and depression at later steps did not lead to improved classification. The results are interpreted as providing strong support for a link between suicide attempts in children and perceptions of low family support.
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA School of Medicine 90024.
J R
JR
Asarnow
G
G
Carlson
D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012307:Risk Factors; D012649:Self Concept; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology*