A case-control, psychological autopsy study of 120 of 170 consecutive suicides younger than age 20 & 147 community matched controls living in the greater New York area was conducted. 58 suicide victims & 49 community controls came from nonintact families of origin. Potential modifiers of separation/divorce included youth’s age at separation, custodial parent’s remarriage, nonresidential parent’s frequency of contact, parent-child relationships, & parental psychopathology. The relatively small impact of separation/divorce was further diminished after accounting for parental psychopathology. An interaction of separation/divorce & the father-child relationship emerged. (47 refs.)