From Father Facts II:
The National
Fatherhood Initiative.
"In a study of 146 adolescent
friends of 26 adolescent suicide victims, teens living in
single-parent families are not only more likely to commit suicide
but also more likely to suffer from psychological disorders, when
compared to teens living in intact families."
Source: David A.
Brent, (et. al.) "Post-traumatic Stress Disorders in Peers of
Adolescent Suicide Victims: Predisposing Factors and
Phenomenology." Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry 34 (1995): 209-215.
"Fatherless children are at dramatically greater risk of
suicide."
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
National Center for Health Statistics, Survey on Child Health,
Washington, D.C., 1993.
"Three out of four teenage suicides occur in households where a
parent has been absent."
Source: Jean Beth Eshtain, "Family
Matters: The Plight of America's Children." The Christian
Century (July 1993): 14-21.
"A family structure index - a composite index based on the annual
rate of children involved in divorce and the percentage of families
with children present that are female-headed - is a strong predictor
of suicide among young adult and adolescent white males."
Source:
Patricia L. McCall and Kenneth C. Land, "Trends in White Male
Adolescent, Young-Adult, and Elderly Suicide: Are There Common
Underlying Structural Factors?" Social Science Research 23
(1994): 57-81
From: Americans for Divorce Reform:
http://www.divorcereform.org
Among all possible contributing factors, "only divorce rates were
consistently associated with suicide and with homicide
rates."
David Lester, "Time-Series Versus Regional
Correlates of Rates of Personal Violence," Death Studies (1993):
529-534. Cited on page36 ofThe Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie
Gallagher
Suicide rates for children of divorce are much higher than for
children from intact families.
Brian Willats, Breaking Up
is Easy To Do, available from Michigan Family Forum, citing Susan
Larson and David Larson, M.D., M.S.P.H., "Divorce: A Hazard to Your
Health?" Physician, May/June 1990, p. 16, which cites several
studies on adolescent suicide.
Death of a parent does not correlate with teen suicide, but
family instability or disruption is one of the leading causes of
suicide. Perceived rejection by a parent, not merely the loss of a
parent, is apparently the relevant factor.
Nelson,
Farberow and Litman, Youth Suicide in California: A Comparative
Study of Perceived Causes and Interventions, 24 COMM. MENTAL HEALTH
J. 31-42 (1988); and John S. Wardarski and Pamela Harris,
"Adolescent Suicide: A Review of the Influences and Means for
Prevention. 32(6) Social Work 477-484 (1977). Cited in "No-Fault
Divorce: Proposed Solutions to a National Tragedy," 1993 Journal of
Legal Studies 2, page 18
"Upon surveying 752 families at random, the researchers divided
the children into those who had never attempted suicide and those
who had done so at least once. The two groups, they found, differed
little in age, family income, race, and religion. But those who
attempted suicide were more likely to live in non-intact family
settings than were the nonattempters. More than half of the
attempters lived in households with no more than one biological
parent, whereas only about a third of the nonattempters lived in
such a setting."
Carmen Noevi Velez and Patricia Cohen,
"Suicidal Behavior and Ideation in a Community Sample of Children:
Maternal and Youth Reports," Journal of the American Academy of
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 273 [1988]: 349-356. Cited in
Amneus, The Garbage Generation, page 239
Effects of divorce on low-income boys
(1994 Cornell U.
study) --
gopher://gopher.cit.cornell.edu/00/.files/PRST_FILES/PRST089405
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