The Suicide Notes of Young and Old People
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13675819 |
|---|---|
| Authors | D Lester (0000-0003-1357-8672, Richard Stockton State College, corresponding author), Calvin Reeve (Richard Stockton State College) |
| Year | 1982 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 334-334 |
| Publication date | 1982-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychological Reports (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-2941 • E-ISSN: 1558-691X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2466/pr0.1982.50.1.334 |
| PMID | 7071282 |
| OpenAlex | W1976899914 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 2 |
A sample of 52 suicide notes (from 48 completed and 4 attempted suicides) were obtained from the police files of a large city and examined to explore differences in the content by age. Subjects had a mean age of 42.2 (SD = 17.3); 35 were males and 17 females. The ages of the note writers were moderately associated with a smaller ratio of verbs of feeling to verbs of action (r = -0.41, two-tailed p = 0.004) and were less explicit in stating suicide as their intention (s = -0.33, p = 0.02) . e age of the noce writer was not associated with the length of the notes (either words, thought units, or words per thought unit), the number of positive, negative, or neutral units or the Discomfort/Relief Quotient (Dollard & Mowrer, 1947), the number of notes, the percent of adjectives relative to verbs, the percent of pronouns or possessive adjectives referring to others rather than the self, the dramatic quality of the notes, the presence of instructions, the mention of suicide in the note, the note being disorganized, or choice of an active versus a passive method for suicide. The only sex differences identified were that the notes of males concained more negative thought units and were rated less often as disorganized. Thus, the notes of older persons tended to be more concerned with feelings rather than accion and less explicit about their forthcoming suicidal action
Developmental psychology · Injury prevention · Medical emergency · Occupational safety and health · Poison control · Psychiatry · Suicide prevention · Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Medicine · Psychology · Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,17 |
| Citation span | 2003 - 2020 (18) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |