The Influence of Geographic Mobility on Nearly Lethal Suicide Attempts

T eenagers and young adults are very mobile and mobility has been identified as a potential risk factor for suicidal behavior. We conducted a population‐based, case‐control study of nearly lethal suicide attempts with 153 cases and 513 controls. Study participants were asked about changing residence over the past 12 months. Results indicate that moving in the past 12 months is positively associated with a nearly lethal suicide attempt (adjusted odds ratio of 2.1, with 95% confidence interval of 1.4–3.3), as are specific characteristics of the move (e.g., frequency, recency, distance, and difficulty staying in touch). These findings confirm and extend prior ecologic research by demonstrating a relationship, at the individual level, between the geographic mobility of adolescents and young adults and nearly lethal suicide attempts.     

Place and Philosophical Topography: Responding to Bubbio,Farin and Satne

ABSTRACT

Diego Bubbio, Ingo Farin and Glenda Satne have advanced a range of comments, questions and challenges relating to the ideas and arguments set out in the new edition of my Place and Experience (2018). Rather than address each of my interlocutors separately, my responses here are organized around four main topics: the relation between space and place, including the nature of space; the relation between place and subjectivity, and the foundational role of place; the relation between place and conceptuality; and the relation between place and normativity.     

Correlates of Suicidal Ideation in Physically Injured Trauma Survivors

Epidemiologic studies have documented that injury survivors are at increased risk for suicide. We evaluated 206 trauma survivors to examine demographic, clinical, and injury characteristics associated with suicidal ideation during hospitalization and across 1 year. Results indicate that mental health functioning, depression symptoms, and history of mental health services were associated with suicidal ideation in the hospital; being a parent was a protective factor. Pre‐injury posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, assaultive injury mechanism, injury‐related legal proceedings, and physical pain were significantly associated with suicidal ideation across 1 year. Readily identifiable risk factors early after traumatic injury may inform hospital‐based screening and intervention procedures.     

EXAMINATION OF THREE TECHNIQUES FOR IDENTIFYING FIRST-GRADE CHILDREN AT RISK FOR DIFFICULTY IN WORD IDENTIFICATION WITH AN EMPHASIS ON REDUCING THE FALSE NEGATIVE ERROR RATE

The success of early intervention programs created to prevent children from experiencing reading failure is contingent upon the accurate identification of children at risk for reading difficulties. The present study assessed 291 first graders (M Age = 79.7 months; 54.9% female, 45.1% male) on reading, intelligence, and phonological processing at the beginning and end of the academic year to determine the accuracy of three different approaches to identification. The first procedure used the calibration data from a reference group's discriminant analysis, the second simply determined the children who scored below the mean on all of the reading and phonological variables (Simple Computation), and the last used a weighting system (Complex Computation). The children were classified into good and poor reading groups based on composite reading scores determined by averaging their standard scores on Word Identification, Word Attack, and Passage Comprehension of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised (Woodcock, 1987) at the end of the year. The poor readers were further classified, based on their scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (Dunn & Dunn, 1981) into groups containing children who had reading difficulties (RD) and children whose reading abilities were commensurate with their intelligence (intelligence commensurate, IC). Although all of the procedures provided relatively accurate identification, 80.2%, 87.3%, 89.7%, for the discriminant analysis, Simple Computation, and Complex Computation, respectively, the last procedure provided the best overall accuracy with the smallest percentage of false negatives (6.2%).     

Characteristics of Impulsive Suicide Attempts and Attempters

S uicide attempts often are impulsive, yet little is known about the characteristics of impulsive suicide. We examined impulsive suicide attempts within a population‐based, case‐control study of nearly lethal suicide attempts among people 13–34 years of age. Attempts were considered impulsive if the respondent reported spending less than 5 minutes between the decision to attempt suicide and the actual attempt. Among the 153 case‐subjects, 24% attempted impulsively. Impulsive attempts were more likely among those who had been in a physical fight and less likely among those who were depressed. Relative to control subjects, male sex, fighting, and hopelessness distinguished impulsive cases but depression did not. Our findings suggest that inadequate control of aggressive impulses might be a greater indicator of risk for impulsive suicide attempts than depression.