Childhood predictors of later suicide: Follow‐up of a sample of gifted children

By 1987, 8.7 per cent of the deaths of the men and 5.2 per cent of the deaths of the women in Terman's sample of gifted children were from suicide. Four variables distinguished those who killed themselves at a young age from those committing suicide later: the length of pregnancy, the length of breast feeding, loss of father by death or divorce, and a lower desire to excel.