Suicidal Adolescents' Perceptions of Their Family Environment.

Examined adolescents' perceptions of their family environments and suicidal behavior. Fifteen suicidal adolescents, 14 psychiatric controls, and 14 normal controls rated their families on cohesiveness, adaptability, parent-adolescent communication, parental caring, and parental overprotectiveness. Suicidal adolescents rated their families as least cohesive, most rigid, suggesting that adolescent suicidal behavior may occur when isolation is experienced within inflexible family system. (Author/NB)