Citation

Lyon ME, Benoit M, O'Donnell RM, Getson PR, Silber T, Walsh T. Adolescence 2000; 35(137): 121-134.

Affiliation

Department of General Pediatrics and Young Adult Medicine, Children's National Medical Center, NW, Washington, DC 20010, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Libra Publishers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10841301

Abstract

The threat of separation from a parent theoretically increases the risk of adolescent suicide attempts. The present study evaluated this and other hypothesized risk factors in a sample of adolescent suicide attempters and nonsuicidal controls, using the Psychiatric Consultation Checklist (Lyon, 1987). Stepwise logistic regression was used to predict group membership. It was found that threat of separation from a parental figure, insomnia, neglect, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, and failing grades were the strongest predictors of suicide attempt. Ten predictor variables correctly identified 97% of suicide attempters and 86% of nonattempters. Unexpected findings included high levels of truancy, threatening others, and separation from a parent before the age of 12 among nonattempters.

Language: en