Recent stressors and family satisfaction in suicidal adolescents in South Africa

A study of 40 adolescents who had engaged in suicidal behaviours showed that 77.5% of them reported conflict with their parents in the few hours before the event. Significantly more suicidal subjects than controls experienced family conflict, problems at school and problems with boy/girlfriends during the preceding 6 months. The suicidal subjects also expressed significantly lower levels of family satisfaction than the controls. The results support the view that suicidal adolescents are dissatisfied with their family functioning and use suicidal behaviour as a means of communicating their distress.