Correlates of Suicidal Ideation among Rural Adolescents

This study examined potential predictors of suicidal ideation among a nonclinical, rural adolescent population. A sample of 76 male and female adolescents enrolled in a rural public high school completed a personal information form, a suicide information questionnaire, short forms of the Beck Depression Inventory and the Family Environment Scale, and the Life Events Checklist. A stepwise multiple regression suggested significant predictive relationships between magnitude of suicidal ideation and measures of family social climate (i.e., Organization, Conflict, Expressiveness, and Independence subscales from the Family Environment Scale--Short Form). Multivariate analyses of variance and a discriminant-function analysis revealed no significant sex differences.