Ratings of family functioning of suicidal and nonsuicidal African Americanwomen

This study compared ratings of family functioning between female African Am erican suicide attempters (n = 126) and nonattempters (n = 112). Attempters reported poorer family-of-creation (physical and nonphysical partner abuse , family strengths, and marital adjustment) and family-of-origin (physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and emotional neglect) functioning than did co ntrols. In a multivariate logistic regression, only marital discord and chi ldhood sexual abuse were risk factors for suicide attempts. A cumulative ri sk model was also tested and indicated that the presence of 4 or more of th e risk factors increased a woman's likelihood of making a nonfatal suicide attempt more than threefold. This study offers one of the first investigati ons of the families of suicidal African American women and highlights the i mportance of focusing on family concerns when working with this population.