Citation

Dori GA, Overholser JC. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 1999; 29(4): 309-318.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7123, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10636325

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine depression, hopelessness, and self-esteem as related to suicidal behavior in three groups of depressed adolescent psychiatric inpatients. Depressed adolescents who had never attempted suicide were compared to depressed adolescents who had attempted suicide once and to depressed adolescents who had attempted suicide on several different occasions. Results showed that suicidal adolescents experienced significantly greater depression and hopelessness than did the nonsuicidal adolescents. However, all three groups of depressed adolescents reported similar low levels of self-esteem. Measures of depression and hopelessness were useful in classifying the adolescents based on their suicidal behavior. Results suggest that the treatment of suicidal adolescents could benefit from strategies that focus on reducing feelings of depression and hopelessness.