Young children with suicidal thoughts and behaviors more likely to resolve conflicts with violence, homicide, or suicide: A study of internal working models using narratives.

ABSTRACT: There is mounting evidence that young children who express suicidal ideation (SI) have a different conceptualization of death than their peers. This study characterizes 3- to 6-year-olds' depictions of violence, death, and suicidal themes in a story completion task as a function of their history of SI. Participants were 228 children with depression (3.0-6.9 years) who completed a comprehensive psychiatric assessment and four story stem narratives. For each narrative, an interviewer began a story with a conflict that the child was encouraged to resolve. Children's resolutions were coded for standard themes and negative atypical themes including violence and homicide, accidental harm or death, and suicidal ideation/acts. Themes were examined as a function of children's SI status: active-SI (

SUBMITTER: Hennefield L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9439584 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature