title: Childhood suicidal behaviour.
abstract: Twenty children under 14 years of age who were admitted to hospital following a suicide attempt were compared to 50 psychiatrically ill non-suicidal inpatients of similar age. Suicidal behaviour was associated with mostly the male sex, personal experiences of significant losses, academic under-achievement, marital disintegration among the parents and past intrafamilial violence, including physical abuse of the index child. Although suicide behaviour was not a prerogative of a particular social class, a number of factors producing high risk for poverty were present among a proportion of the families. In both samples there was a high incidence of ongoing illness in the families and a high incidence of perinatal difficulties concerning the index child were reported. Suicidal children did not have a past history of antisocial behaviour and their classroom behaviour was unremarkable.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D009042:Motivation; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology*; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology*