Fears of Death in Suicidal and Nonsuicidal Adolescents

Suicidal, psychiatric, and normal adolescent girls and boys, ages 15-17 years, participated in a study on five types of death fears. A mixed within-between multivariate analysis of variance (5 factors × 3 groups) yielded significant interactive effects indicating that there were different profiles of fears among the three groups: Relative to the other groups, suicidal adolescents displayed little differentiation between facets of fear, with differences in the magnitude of fear limited to the intrapersonal facets. Correlates of fear varied between groups: Fear was positively correlated with suicidality in normal subjects, negatively correlated with suicidality among suicidal ones, and unrelated to suicidality in the psychiatric group. It is suggested that fear of death is processed and experienced differently by suicidal and nonsuicidal adolescents to serve as a facilitator or inhibitor of suicidal behavior.