Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1975

Thesis Director

Randall H. Best

Abstract

The study of suicide is the study of individuals, each of whom can be considered a unique entity. However, in the course of studying suicide case histories, some demographic variables seem to repeat themselves as differentiating potential suicides from persons who will never attempt or commit suicide. The purpose of this paper is to determine which social history variables correlate significantly with subjects who have made a definite suicide attempt or gesture.

The basic question raised by this thesis was: What factors in a person's social history correlate significantly to an increased probability of having made a suicide attempt or gesture? The reason for asking this question was that by finding these factors a clinician could increase his acumen at detecting potential suicides.

The problem involved with this theses was to find the significant demographic variables of one's social history which would indicate increased probability of having made a suicide attempt or gesture. The hypothesis advanced was that the findings would be much the same as those of previous studies, which are delineated in the review of literature section.

The design of the study involved matched subjects, with a suicidal group of subjects who had made a suicide gesture or attempt, and a control group consisting of persons who had no history of such an attempt or gesture. The subjects were matched on the basis of sex, age, and marital status. Each subject had completed a Social History Questionnaire (Best, 1971), and these forms were analyzed for significantly differentiating social history factors. These factors were found to be indicative of an increased probability of having made a suicidal gesture or attempt. A previous attempt or gesture increases the likelihood of the next attempt being completed. A subject who has a large number of the significant variables apply to him can be considered to be in the high-risk category of suicide probability.

Download

Share

COinS