Suicidal Behavior in Normal School Children: A Comparison With Child Psychiatric Inpatients

A study of 101 randomly selected preadolescent school children, who had never been psychiatric patients, revealed 11.9% with suicidal ideas, threats, or attempts. Suicidal ideas were expressed in 8.9% of the children. Suicidal school children differed from nonsuicidal school children in greater preoccupation with death, more recent & past depression, more suicidal impulses in the mothers, & a greater tendency to use introjection as an ego defense. Risk of suicide in children are described.