title: Suicide attempts and retrospective reports about parent-child relationships: evidence for the affectionless control hypothesis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the characteristics of recalled parent-child relationships in suicide attempters vs. non-attempters
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 509 patients - 249 presenting with pain at a psychosomatic clinic and 260 from the offices of general practitioners - were interviewed retrospectively about suicide attempts and parent-child relationships.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall rate of those reporting a suicide attempt was 17%. Bivariate analyses showed associations of poor parent-child relationships with suicide attempts throughout. In a multivariate analysis, the combinations high maternal control*low perceived love (p<.001) and high control*high role reversal (p=.002) were associated with particularly elevated risks for suicide attempts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Beside the two most extensively explored dimensions of parent-child relationships, parental affection and control, one other dimension, role reversal, also contributes strongly to risk for offspring suicide attempts and should be considered in future studies.
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hardt
authors.forename: U T
authors.initials: UT
authors.lastname: Egle
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Johnson