In an attempt to explore how children relate to and explain the concept of suicide, three non-clinical male children, ranging in age from 3 to 5 years, were presented with children's stories adapted to include suicidal content. Following each storyreading session, children were asked to respond to questions designed to assess their understanding of five suicide components: evitability, motive, volition, nonfunctionality, and realization. / The results revealed that these children's understanding of suicide components, when compared to a mature definition of suicide, varied across age and fluctuated across stories. A major finding was that the use of suicide-related theme stories appeared to be a viable technique for assessing suicide concept in children. Children's responses to questions about suicide suggested that other variables may influence children's suicide concept understanding, including verbal ability, nonverbal expressiveness, emotional development, death-related experiences, and religious background. None of the children who participated in the study appeared to experience any severe anxiety in response to suicide story subject matter. The conclusion is that the use of stories as a technique for exploring suicide concept development in young children is warranted. Implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions are offered for future research. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-05, Section: A, page: 1389. / Major Professor: Gary W. Peterson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77179 |
| Contributors | Clark, Dana Ann., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 236 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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