Questionnaires completed by approximately 125 counselors revealed contact with 187 students considering suicide during 1 academic year, 26 of whom had attempted suicide, and 1 of whom committed suicide. Critical concerns of elementary students identified by counselors included parent divorce, appearance/self-esteem, peer pressure, remarriage,…

Reviews hypotheses regarding low suicide rates reported in Third World countries. Describes key informant survey of 16 villages in Ecuador that showed rate of suicide in rural area of Andes to be much higher than what is usually reported for regions with similar characteristics. Found that victims were predominantly young and marital/family…

Collected and reviewed all available assessment instruments (n=29) used to study suicidal behaviors in adolescents and young adults. Found instruments varied substantially in purpose, format, informant, and theoretical orientation. Categorized 461 items from instruments according to behavior type and content categories. Most items assessed…

Evaluated whether adolescent suicide attempters (n=30) would have deficits in interpersonal problem solving and relation between social problem solving, suicide intent, and medical lethality. Compared with 30 psychiatric and 30 normal controls, adolescents who attempted suicide exhibited poorer social problem-solving abilities. Suicide attempters…

Measured aspects of problem solving in adult male psychiatric patients (n=9), who were hospitalized after attempted suicide. Controls (n=15) were patients with chronic idiopathic pain and healthy volunteers. Results indicated there were no differences in problem solving or flexibility, although suicidal patients scored significantly lower on…

Describes the coping responses of three administrators who dealt with various school tragedies, namely, a senior's suicide, a classroom hostage situation involving a bomb explosion, and a tornado that collapsed a cafeteria wall. A sidebar outlines one district's crisis plan. (MLH)

Subjected suicide prevention program for high school sophomores to statistical analysis of effectiveness. Results showed that disturbingly high proportion of adolescents had undesirable attitudes about suicide in baseline period. Program appeared to have caused significant shift from undesirable to desirable attitudinal responses in six of eight…

Analyzed rates of birth, divorce, marriage, and unemployment in Canada and United States in comparison to rates of suicide from 1950 to 1985. Found no association between marriage and suicide in Canada, in U.S. marriage had protective effect. Divorce rates were associated positively and birth rates associated negatively with suicide in both…

Time-series analysis of association between social indicators and suicide and homicide rates in United States from 1945 to 1984 and ecological analysis of same variables over continental states revealed that only divorce rates were consistently associated with suicide and with homicide rates (positively with both). (Author)

Examined attributions that college students (n=96) made about individual who committed suicide. Gender of victim and alcohol involvement were systematically varied. Women appeared to place more emphasis on contextual clues such as alcohol use and gender. Both women and men tended to associate alcohol use and suicide for male actors but not for…

Examination of national mortality data revealed no overall change in suicide rates from 1979 to 1984. Only main effects for race, sex, and age group were significant predictors of total suicide rates. Males were at greater risk for suicide than same-race females; rates of suicide increased with age. African-American adolescents were racial group…

Professional groups identified as "gatekeepers" who might serve as first line of assistance for distressed young people were surveyed (N=219). Low levels of knowledge about suicide risk were found. Educational efforts directed at risk identification and prevention, attitudinal issues, and communication with young suicidal people are…

Outlines the authors' ideas on reviewing books for young adults. Discusses including multiple reviews of the same texts, "internationalizing" texts for review and reviewers and opening up the objects of reviews to multimedia texts and formats. Offers eight brief reviews of a single book (William Taylor's "Jerome") for young readers, which opens up…

Study reports the results of a national survey of 1000 professional counselors regarding the frequency and impact of client suicide. Counselors reported having intrusive and avoidant thoughts regarding the crisis that were higher than those of either psychologists or psychiatrists. Results indicate that the effects of client suicide have…

Assesses the generality and strength of nonclinical youths' (N=569) perceptions of the harmfulness and lethality of acetaminophen in overdose. Findings indicate that adolescents have ready access to acetaminophen and use it in suicide attempts but underestimate its potential for toxicity, lacking knowledge regarding side effects of overdose. (RJM)