Preoccupations with Death in “Normal” Children: The Relationship to Suicidal Behavior

This article discusses the role of death preoccupations in the diagnosis of childhood suicidal behavior. One hundred and one randomly selected school children, ages six to twelve years, and a parent were interviewed with a semistructured approach to determine characteristics of the child's behavior, emotions, development, ego functioning, concepts of death, and family history. Approximately 12 percent of the children expressed suicidal ideas or acts. The suicidal children had significantly more intense preoccupations with death than the nonsuicidal children. Three brief vignettes and the children's statements about death are presented to illustrate a nonsuicidal child without a recent death experience, a suicidal child, and a nonsuicidal child with a recent death experience.