Abstract
Administered a structured interview measure of childhood suicidality to 53 hospitalized 5- to 7-year-old preadolescents and their parents. There after, preadolescents completed child report measures of depression, hopelessness, self-esteem, and anger-proneness; parents completed behavior checklist measures of their children's depressed and aggressive behaviors, and clinicians assigned diagnoses to children. Information on suicidality provided by the children was related to child reports of depression, hopelessness, and low self-esteem. Information on suicidality provided by parents was associated with parent reports of children's depressed and aggressive behavior, diagnoses of depressive disorder, and child reports of hopelessness and low self-esteem. Relations between suicidal behavior and its hypothesized affective and behavioral correlates tended to be stronger within the same or similar informant categories versus dissimilar informant categories. The variables that best discriminated suicidal ideators were different from the variables that best discriminated suicide attempters.