Describes a preliminary study examining the relative power of measures of perceived family support, hopelessness & depression for the classification of suicide attempters & nonattempters in a series of 8-13 year old psychiatric inpatients. Results showed that measures of a child’s perceived family support discriminated between attempters & nonattempters with 88% accuracy. Results are interpreted as providing strong support for a link between attempts in children & perceptions of low family support.