AN ANALYSIS OF ADOLESCENT SUICIDE ATTEMPTS - THE EXPENDABLE CHILD

Assessed the concept of the "expendable child" syndrome proposed by Sabbath (1969) as a contributing factor in adolescent suicide attempts It was hypothesized that suicidal adolescents would be rated higher on a measure of "expendability" than would a psychiatric control group of adolescents with no known history of suicide attempts or ideation Forty adolescents, ages 13-24, who had been seen in psychotherapy at a teen-age health clinic, were rated by their psychotherapists on suicidahty and a 12-item scale of expendability (a sense of being unwanted and/or a burden on the family) As predicted, suicidal adolescents received significantly higher ratings on the expendability measure than nonsuicidal adolescents Results support the concept that feeling expendable is a characteristic of suicidal adolescents Implications for prevention and treatment of adolescent suicidahty are discussed. © 1990 Plenum Publishing Corporation.