Lifetime Suicide Attempts in Juvenile Assessment Center Youth

To describe suicide risk in youth seen at a Juvenile Assessment Center, the authors examined relationships among self-reported lifetime attempts & demographic, justice, & psychiatric data via logistic regression. Similar to other settings, youth reporting lifetime attempts were more likely to be older, female, not living with both parents, & currently arrested for a violent or felony crime. Mood, substance use, & behaviour disorder each increased prediction substantially. Anxiety disorder was associated with elevated attempt rates for boys only. (38 refs.)