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Grief and Attitudes Toward Suicide in Peers Affected by a Cluster of Suicides as Adolescents
Author(s) -
Abbott Caroline H.,
Zakriski Audrey L.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/sltb.12100
Subject(s) - closeness , grief , psychology , suicide prevention , social support , clinical psychology , injury prevention , cluster (spacecraft) , human factors and ergonomics , complicated grief , poison control , psychiatry , medicine , medical emergency , psychotherapist , mathematical analysis , mathematics , computer science , programming language
Eighty‐five young adults exposed to a cluster of peer suicides as adolescents completed measures of attitudes toward suicide, grief, and social support. Closeness to the peers lost to suicide was positively correlated with grief and the belief that suicide is not preventable, with grief further elevated in close individuals with high social support from friends. Overall, social support was related to healthy attitudes about suicide including preventability, yet it was also related to some stigmatizing beliefs. Compared with 67 young adults who had not been exposed to a suicide cluster, the exposed sample was more likely to think that suicide is normal but more likely to think of it as incomprehensible.