Biomaterial Database

Suicidal adolescents' perceptions of their family environment. 1992

K E Miller, and C A King, and B N Shain, and M W Naylor

University of Michigan.

This study examined the extent to which adolescents' perceptions of their family environments were associated with suicidal behavior. Fifteen suicidal adolescents, 14 psychiatric controls, and 14 normal controls rated their families on cohesiveness, adaptability, parent-adolescent communication, parental caring, and parental over-protectiveness. Suicidal adolescents rated their families as the least cohesive and most rigid of the 3 groups, suggesting that adolescent suicidal behavior may occur when isolation is experienced within an inflexible family system. Suicidal and psychiatric control adolescents rated their families as similarly dysfunctional along the remaining variables, and as more dysfunctional than families of normal control adolescents. The implications of these findings are discussed, and it is suggested that several characteristics commonly attributed to families of suicidal adolescents may actually be general risk factors for adolescent psychopathology, rather than for suicidal behavior specifically.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D009769	Object Attachment	Emotional attachment to someone or something in the environment.	Bonding (Psychology),Bonds, Emotional,Emotional Bonds,Object Relations,Symbiotic Relations (Psychology),Bonding, Psychological,Object Relationship,Psychological Bonding,Attachment, Object,Attachments, Object,Bond, Emotional,Bondings (Psychology),Emotional Bond,Object Attachments,Object Relation,Object Relationships,Relation, Object,Relation, Symbiotic (Psychology),Relations, Object,Relations, Symbiotic (Psychology),Relationship, Object,Relationships, Object,Symbiotic Relation (Psychology)
D010287	Parent-Child Relations	The interactions between parent and child.	Parent-Offspring Interaction,Parent Child Relationship,Parent-Child Relationship,Interaction, Parent-Offspring,Parent Child Relations,Parent Child Relationships,Parent Offspring Interaction,Parent-Child Relation,Parent-Child Relationships,Parent-Offspring Interactions,Relation, Parent-Child,Relationship, Parent Child,Relationship, Parent-Child
D010552	Personality Assessment	The determination and evaluation of personality attributes by interviews, observations, tests, or scales. Articles concerning personality measurement are considered to be within scope of this term.	Assessment, Personality,Assessments, Personality,Personality Assessments
D010553	Personality Development	Growth of habitual patterns of behavior in childhood and adolescence.	Development, Personality
D003142	Communication	The exchange or transmission of ideas, attitudes, or beliefs between individuals or groups.	Miscommunication,Misinformation,Social Communication,Communication Programs,Communications Personnel,Personal Communication,Communication Program,Communication, Personal,Communication, Social,Communications, Social,Miscommunications,Misinformations,Personnel, Communications,Program, Communication,Programs, Communication,Social Communications
D005190	Family	A social group consisting of parents or parent substitutes and children.	Family Life Cycles,Family Members,Family Life Cycle,Family Research,Filiation,Kinship Networks,Relatives,Families,Family Member,Kinship Network,Life Cycle, Family,Life Cycles, Family,Network, Kinship,Networks, Kinship,Research, Family
D005260	Female		Females
D006760	Hospitalization	The confinement of a patient in a hospital.	Hospitalizations
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man