How adolescents deal with the difficulties and disappointments in their lives determines whether or not they will be able to successfully adapt to life stress. As the stresses of living become greater in our society, the number of adolescents who kill themselves also continues to increase. This study supported the concept that continual failure seems to plague the suicidal child, increasing and becoming more significant by the high school years. The sample consisted of the parents of 51 adolescents who suicided between the ages of 12-27. The study found that during the elementary school age years children who later kill themselves are still not significantly different than those children who do not later kill themselves, but they do begin to show somewhat different strategies of dealing with the stress they experience, and how they view themselves and their abilities. Adults at home and at school can work together to insure that children are encouraged and exposed to positive methods of reducing stress at early ages and in many different situations. Young children affect the response they receive from others. If they are to develop a good feeling about who they are it is necessary to recognize what their impact is on others, why it occurs, and what they might do to change it. (LLL)