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This study analyzes how social support is actualized by comparing 61 welfare recipients with a sample of 21 individuals above the poverty level in the area of St-Henri and Pointe Saint-Charles and by taking into account the level of psychological distress. A second goal is to document how an adversity experienced by a welfare recipient, with or without distress, breaks or change the support network. Results show that individuals with high distress have a less reliable network than those without, that they more often report a refusal of support or are let down and that they have more negative ties in their network. Besides, experienced events are more likely to attack their reputation, represent a threat, a betrayal or prevent access to a right. These individuals are also more likely to be isolated.

This research analyzes school integration of a sample of 150 adolescents lacking parental attention. A group of 78 suicidal students is compared to a group of 72 non-suicidals. Students are 14 to 17 years old and are recruited in six schools of the Montreal region. Suicidal adolescents do not experience more problems of discipline, absenteeism, academic performance or relationship with their peers than non suicidal adolescents. However they appear less motivated in school than non suicidal adolescents being more frequently late in class. They also participate less in extracurricular activities offered by the school and experience more conflicts with the school's adults than non-suicidals. Moreover, suicidal adolescents have more characteristics related to dropping out than non suicidals. Finally, the differences observed regarding school integration highlight some signs of vulnerability associated with suicidal behaviour during adolescence when they lack parental attention.

This article sums up the outcome of a research project conducted in Montreal schools in 1987 and 1988, and focusing on how family ecology and social networks relate to strong suicidal tendencies among teenagers. Two groups were involved in the study: one with 78 suicidal persons, the other with 72 non-suicidal persons. Teenagers in each group were interviewed separately. All subjects reported high lack of attention from at least one of the two parents. Results also show that parents of suicidal teens experience permanent break-ups less frequently in comparison to the other group. However, families of suicidal teens tend to experience deeper changes in the structure of the family unit following an initial separation. With respect to moving, there are no significant differences, whether in the number of moves or the important people, have access to as many different kinds of support and report the same number of conflicts. In all these comparisons, however, suicidal teenagers do name a proportionately higher number of adults. This leads the authors to hypothesize that a higher rate of parental separation among non-suicidal teens could represent a protective factor rather than a vulnerability factor, as is usually suggested. In terms of social networks, the fact that suicidal teens seek out adults to a greater degree could impede on their socializing with peers and, therefore, on their social integration.

The mental health of migrants is affected by many factors that stem from premigratory experiences as well as adaptation conditions of the host nation. The interaction of these two types of factors are however set in time: certain periods are characterized by relative stability, while others are marked by unexpected disruptions which tend to make migration appear as a never-ending process. An individual's age upon arrival in a new country is also an important factor: adolescents must meet many different types of demands, while the elderly no longer have the personal resources to assimilate a new culture. The author points out that adaptation takes place in a family system where the fortune of each member impacts on that of others in the family. In this article, the author discusses prevention by taking into consideration certain issues raised by scientific literature.

In this critical review of English-language research on mental health, the authors identify the dimensions and variables taken into consideration in analyzing, on the one hand, social space and, on the other hand, the field of mental health. Three essential aspects of the body of research are analyzed : theoretical frames of reference ; methods and instruments ; and how links are made between social variables and mental-health problems. In a long conclusion, orientations of French-Quebec social research into mental health are compared to those of English research.

The frequent association made in the academic press between poverty and minor and major mental health problems is unfounded. There is absolutely no proof that lack of revenue is the main cause of such a hardship. Poverty is first and foremost an area in society where mostly vulnerable groups congregate, particularly mothers of single-parent families, immigrants and refugees, the unemployed, as well as former psychiatric patients. Problems are also much more concentrated in poor districts with high-rise, multiple dwelling apartment buildings. On a different note, it appears that people with better personal resources occupy middle-class districts. Poverty is definitively not a source of psychological problems unless it is combined with such factors as social isolation, emigration, unemployment or an anomic district.

Suicide among youth is a subject of growing concern. Successful suicides, however, represent only a slight part of the total problem. A study conducted with 666 francophones students attending four C.E.G.E.P. in the Montreal territory reveals that 21.2 % of them say that they have already experienced serious suicidal ideation. 12.2 % have had these experiences within the last twelve months. There are also 3.6 % of the students who admitted to having attempted suicide during the same period, and 8.1 % during their lifetime. More than half of the students say they also have experienced suicidal obsessions such as a fear or a desire to throw themselves in front of the metro. Parental separation and poor health represent the two most serious risk factors. Nearly three quarters of the people who have had serious suicidal thoughts have thought of plans or have confided them to members of their social circle... The reaction of the milieu was reported as positive in only half the cases. Clinical interviews with 25 of the respondents showed that the suicidal ideation reported, corresponded, in almost all cases, with a period of great anguish. The fact of thinking of suicide did have, on the other hand, some positive effects in producing awareness of the possibility of a control over one's destiny.

A study made on a sample of 2,327 Montréal area students of third, fourth and fifth year of High School shows that suicidal behaviors ("les suicidaires") account for 13.2 % of youth interrogated, and that 6.7 % admit to having attempted suicide. The suicidal behavior rate is higher among girls than boys and it is lower in schools where the proportion of allophones is over 50 %. The separation of parents and the father's negligence are factors that contribute to raising the rate of suicidal behavior. However, a deceased father or mother has no effect on the rate. The rate of suicidal behavior is at its highest when there is a substitute parent. A relation exists, however, between a father's level of scolarity and the family structure. When students come from an unbroken home, there are fewer suicidal subjects when the father has a high rather than a low level of scolarity ; this difference disappears when the family is separated. However, the authors have noticed a greater rate of separation among parents with a higher level of scolarity. As for the higher rate of suicidal behaviors among girls, it is not entirely connected to poor parent-child relations. The data suggest to the authors that parent conflicts could possibly perturb girls more than boys. And finally, although serious health problems are associated to a higher rate of suicidal behavior, this link is relatively indépendant of the quality of parent-child relations.