Many factors affect the way in which others view the parents of a child who has committed suicide. A study of adult responses to newspaper accounts of a child's death revealed the parents were viewed more negatively when the child's death was due to suicide than when the child's death was a result of illness. In addition, the presence of environmental pressures which reduced potentially negative perceptions of parents whose child died from illness did not have a similar impact when the child's death was from suicide. Results suggest that parents whose child commits suicide are likely to encounter attitudes which are more negative in general; they may also find that factors which often mitigate negative judgements in other circumstances may not be applicable when the death is from suicide. (Author/JAC)