Cr. Cotton et Lm. Range, SUICIDALITY, HOPELESSNESS, AND ATTITUDES TOWARD LIFE AND DEATH IN CLINICAL AND NONCLINICAL ADOLESCENTS, Death studies, 20(6), 1996, pp. 601-610
To see if hopelessness and four attitudes (attraction to life and deat
h and repulsion by life and death) account for the development of suic
idality in children, 15 adolescent psychiatric inpatients and 84 middl
e and high school students, average age 15.2 years, took a four-item v
ersion of the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire, the Hopelessness Scale
for Children (HSC), and the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale for
Adolescents (MAST-A). Profiles on the four attitudes differentiated a
dolescents at risk for suicide from those not at risk. Suicidality was
negatively related to Attraction to Death and positively related to R
epulsion by Life, Attraction to Death, Repulsion by Death, and hopeles
sness. Hopelessness was negatively related to Attraction to Life, and
positively related to Repulsion by Life and Repulsion by Death. The be
st predictors of suicidality were hopelessness and Repulsion by Life.
Results imply that reducing feelings of rejection by their families mi
ght lessen suicidality in adolescents.