Citation

Garrison CZ, Addy CL, Jackson KL, McKeown RE, Waller JL. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 1991; 30(4): 597-603.

Affiliation

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Carolina, Columbia 29208.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1890093

Abstract

As part of a longitudinal study of depression and suicidal ideation in adolescents, a three-item suicide screen was administered to 1,073 students for 3 consecutive years starting at the beginning of the 7th or 8th grades. Each year over 70% of respondents reported no suicidal thoughts, and less than 5.5% attained high suicide ideation scores. Blacks and females had higher scores, respectively, than did whites and males. The individual students' suicide scores were less stable than the overall distributions with 1- and 2-year correlations reaching 0.35 and 0.28, respectively. Only one student received a high score all 3 years. The best predictors of a given year's suicide score was the previous years' depression scores. Gender, undesirable life events, family adaptability, and family cohesion were significant but less consistent predictors.

Language: en