Friends of Adolescent Suicide Attempters and Completers

Abstract

Friends of adolescent suicide attempters and suicide completers were compared with students who had low exposure to suicide on a range of preexposure, concurrent, and outcome variables. Subjects who were friends of both suicide attempters and completers (N = 84) differed significantly from the low-exposure group (N = 554) on most variables examined. Friends of suicide completers only (N = 68) and attempters only (N = 92) did not differ from one another; however, the latter group reported significantly higher levels of current depression and suicidal behavior than the low-exposure group. Greater attention needs to be paid to friends of suicide attempters in the development and evaluation of suicide prevention strategies.