title: Family environment, attitudes toward life and death, depression, and suicidality in elementary-school children.
abstract: This study examines whether perception of family environment, attitudes toward life and death, and depression predict suicidality in elementary-school children.  Seventy-eight participants ages 8 to 13 recruited through an elementary school and a university were assessed for attitudes toward life and death, depression, suicidality, and family environment.  A regression equation indicated that depression and attraction to life were the only variables accounting for variance in suicidality (49%).  Family environment variables were moderately correlated with depression, indicating that family environment may play a role in the development and maintenance of depression, of which suicidality is a symptom.  Concurrent treatment of family issues may not only ameliorate children's symptoms, but also provide a critical sense of support that may decrease the likelihood that these children will become suicidal in the future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, USA.
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Range
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001293:Attitude to Death; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression; D005190:Family; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D002666:Psychology, Child; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires