Premium
Community attitudes toward childhood suicide and attempted suicide
Author(s) -
Ginn Paul D.,
Range Lillian M.,
Jo Hailey B.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(198804)16:2<144::aid-jcop2290160205>3.0.co;2-p
Subject(s) - suicide prevention , psychiatry , newspaper , injury prevention , psychology , occupational safety and health , poison control , suicide attempt , medicine , medical emergency , sociology , pathology , media studies
To assess whether people's reactions to family members of child suicide attemptors were similar to reactions to family members of (a) actual suicides and (b) actual suicides that were preceded by a failed suicide attempt, 120 shoppers (60 men and 60 women) read and responded to one of five short newspaper articles about an incident of a 10‐year‐old child who either (a) attempted suicide, (b) committed suicide, (c) committed suicide after a previous suicide attempt, (d) died accidentally, or (e) died of a viral illness. Opinions about the psychological health of the victim and reactions to the surviving family varied depending on the nature of the incident. However, in many instances reactions to families of suicide attemptors could not be differentiated from reactions to families of actual suicides. Therefore, it is likely that the number of people affected by negative community reactions to suicidal behavior has been previously underestimated.