| Abstract: | ABSTRACT: Two hundred twenty individuals who committed suicide and who left notes, when compared with 813 non-note writers, were significantly more likely to be white, female, and, if female, to have any other marital status than “widowed.” With respect to method, the results indicated that note writers were more apt to have committed suiced with “Drugs” and less apt to have used “Other” methods. The question is raised as to whether or not note writers can be accepted as representative of the whole group of those who commit suicide. In 195 suicide notes for which content was available for analysis, the relative percentages of statements containing advice, instructions, and requests (31), other-directed positive affect (19), acknowledgment of wrongdoing (7), and hostile affect (5) were the same in the entire sample as in subsamples of age, sex, and marital status. Only for a few specific content categories did the relative frequency of content vary significantly with age, sex, or marital status. Advantages of the present method of content analysis are discussed, and suggestions for further research in this area are offered. |
