Suicidal Behavior in Adolescents: Stress and Protection in Different Family Contexts

Recent suicidal behaviour was reported on a questionnaire by 14% of 272 high school students. Two-thirds of the suicidal teenagers neither received help nor disclosed their self-harm to anyone. Depression & stress – especially family suicidality, feelings of violation, & sexuality – increased the risk, as did parental separation, divorce, & most dramatically, remarriage. Family cohesiveness helped alleviate the risk in the nonintact families. (32 refs.)