Citation

Scourfield J, Jacob N, Smalley N, Prior L, Greenland K. Child Fam. Soc. Work 2007; 12(3): 248-257.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1365-2206.2007.00498.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper aims to uncover gendered interpretations of various kinds of suicidal behaviour. Its empirical basis is focus group discussions with a range of young people, including users of social work services. In support of Canetto's research, the authors found some of the young people to be associating 'successful' suicides with masculinity and 'failed' suicide attempts with femininity. These feminized suicide attempts were subject to some fairly pejorative interpretations, such as being motivated by revenge or manipulation. There was no particular pattern of viewpoints in terms of the sex of respondents. The implications of these findings for social work are discussed. © 2007 The Author; Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

Gender; Focus groups; Suicide; Young people; Attempted suicide