A sample of 40 adolescents, (mean age=14.8 years), 20 of whom had attempted suicide & 20 who had not, were compared on a number of life history & psychological variables (affective & cognitive). Stepwise discriminant analyses produced one discriminant function (Wilk’s Lambda=0.23; p<.001) that differentiated between the groups. This single function accounted for 77% of the variance in the data. These results are interpreted within the context of the early loss hypothesis. (9 refs.)