Suicidal Ideation and Attempts During

¶ … Suicidal Ideation and Attempts During Middle Childhood: Associations With Perceived Family Stress and Depression Among Child Psychiatric Inpatients (1992) by Joan Rosenbaum Asarnow. (UCLA School of Medicine)

In this article the author explores the associations and relationships between suicide rates and depression among children and the perceptions of family stress and lack of support. The sample used to examine this relationship was derived from children who were psychiatric inpatients. Among the result are findings that indicate that there is a positive correlation between suicide and depression and family stress and support dysfunction among children and young adolescents. The study also shows that the perceptions of low support for the family also have a decisive impact on mental health and especially on depression among children.

Significantly, the author notes that suicide "...now ranks as the second leading cause of death among 15 to 24-year-olds" (Asarnow, 1992, p. 35). An alarming statistics is that that about 13 youths in the 15 to 24 age groups die as a result of suicide every day in the United States. This is a factor that adds impetus to this study and emphasizes the need for research into this area; especially where one considers that this figure does not take into account the much larger number of attempted suicides. Furthermore there is also evidence to support the view that adolescents and child suicide attempters are considered to be a risk group when compared to general population rates. (Asarnow, 1992, p. 35)

This study is essentially at attempt to build on prior studies and findings and to repeat the results of previous research with larger sample groups; as well as to test the verifiably of previous results which indicate that suicide attempts among children are strongly associated with children's perceptions of their family environments as stressful and lacking in support.

To this end the sample base consisted of children across a wide range of ethnic and social backgrounds. Fifty-five children were drawn from consecutive admissions to the Preadolescent Inpatient Unit at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and their ages ranged from 6 years, 9 months to 13 years, 5 months, with a mean of 11.03 years. The Family Environment Scale was employed to assess children's perceptions of their family environments.

This study therefore adds to and validates the growing consensus that there is a link between family stress and low family functionality and suicide rates among the youth. One of the most significant findings was that suicidal children perceive their family environment as more stressful and less supportive than those children who were not suicidal. Coupled with this is the finding that children with suicidal ideation and children with suicide attempts reported more depressive symptoms than non-suicidal children. (Asarnow, 1992, p. 39) Asarnow found that there was a clear link between family situation and environment and thoughts and action related to suicide. "... children who attempted or thought of suicide"... described their families as less cohesive, less expressive, and higher in conflict than did nonsuicidal children" (Asarnow, 1992, p. 39).These children were also found to have higher levels of depression than others in the group with more supportive family structures. The article adds another layer of empirical evidence to the view that family environment and lack of support as well as increased stress are causative factors in child suicide. As the author points out, these finding are also consistent with other similar studies.