title: Interviewing prepubertal children about suicidal ideation and behavior.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Much of the literature on assessment of suicidal children has focused on identifying risk factors associated with suicidal ideation and behavior in this population. Unique problems encountered in interviewing prepubertal children about suicidal ideation and behavior are examined in this paper.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observations of problems encountered in interviewing prepubertal children about suicidal ideation and behavior were gleaned in the context of interviews of children admitted to a child psychiatry inpatient unit and interviews of the parents of these children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Unique problems include difficulties in assessment of suicidal intent, impact of cognitive development, particularly of the concept of death, interaction between current emotional state and memory of previous suicidal episodes, characteristics of play associated with suicidal states, effects of parents' attitudes toward assessment on information gathering, and the impact of certain risk factors on cognition and behavior during the interview.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Interviewing children about suicidal ideation and behavior necessitates that the clinician attend to multiple elements of the interview simultaneously. These interviews are further complicated by the stressful thoughts and feelings that can be raised in both clinician and child in reaction to exploring the child's suicidal ideation and behavior. Additional research is needed to refine the process of reliable interviewing of children about suicidal ideation and behavior and to develop instruments both to quantitate the different elements of these interviews and to guide the clinicians conducting them.
authors.affiliation: New York Hospital-Westchester Division, White Plains 10605.
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Jacobsen
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rabinowitz
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Popper
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Sokol
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Pfeffer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011627:Puberty / Q000523:psychology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology*; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D000092864:Suicide Prevention