Attraction and repulsion by life and death in suicidal and in normal children.

Attraction and repulsion by life and death in 52 suicidal and 58 normal 6–12 yr olds were measured through responses to questions that followed fairy-tale stories. Each story represented 1 of the 4 attitudes. Parallel forms of the test were administered in a time interval of 4 wks. Analyses showed that the 4 attitudes were distinguishable from each other and that the response profile of the suicidal Ss was significantly different from that of normal Ss. Suicidal Ss, in contrast to normal Ss, showed a high degree of repulsion by life and attraction to death and a low degree of attraction to life and repulsion by death. In addition, in suicidal Ss the 4 attitudes were more distinguishable from each other but at the same time were more conflictual. The correlations between the scores of the 1st administrations indicate that 3 of the 4 attitudes have a moderate reliability for both normal and suicidal children. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)