In this study, 15 suicidal adolescents, 14 psychiatric controls & 14 normal controls rated their families on cohesiveness, adaptability, parent-adolescent communication, parental caring & overprotectiveness. Suicidal adolescents rated their families as the least cohesive & most rigid of the 3 groups. Suicidal & psychiatric control adolescents rated their families as similarly dysfunctional along the remaining variables, & as more dysfunctional than families of normal control adolescents. (VM)