Dependent children and suicide of married parents.

In an attempt to analyze the relatively neglected relationship between the presence of dependent children and suicide of married parents, the suicides of both married and single persons in the Chicago-Cook County region for 1970 and 1974 were examined. Single suicides and married suicides with dependent children were compared to similar groups in the general population. It was found that while marrieds with dependent children experienced the lowest average suicide rate, they also had a larger mean number of children than the population as a whole and exhibited a tendency for having children at a very young age or children at an older age in life. These findings contradict contemporary notions that an increasing number of children in a marriage tend to inhibit suicide potential. It appears that the relationship between marital suicide and dependent children is far more complex than previously indicated and requires further research for elaboration.