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Previous research has documented many behavioral problems associated with being a female victim of sexual assault, but little attention has been devoted to whether this experience might be related to premature mortalities. We investigated this utilizing the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health survey, collected from over 10,000 adolescent females in 1995, whose premature deaths (n = 65) were noted in 2007 in National Death Index records. Significant associations were found between females with a substance misuse history and their premature deaths, but not with being a sexual assault victim. The subset of respondents (n = 208) evincing both these characteristics showed significantly higher risks of dying prematurely, as did those females with early histories of drug misuse alone. Yet, adolescent females with histories of drug misuse who also attempted suicide (n = 214) did not show similar elevated risks of dying prematurely compared to others without these experiences. This exploratory evidence points to an affinity between both being a female sexual assault victim and having an early history of misusing drugs, putting such people at heightened risks for dying prematurely, suggesting the potential benefits of counseling and supportive services for those so affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis of a convenience sample survey of 195 suicide bereaved adults focuses on predictors of three important highly interrelated experiences among the suicide bereaved: grief problems, depression and suicidal thinking. Although each of these three experiences can be explained by a unique set of predictors, they share many commonalities. Several predictors stood out especially in either aggravating or alleviating these experiences: personal (or post-traumatic) growth, perceived social support, feelings of blameworthiness, perceived suicide stigma, years since loss and a respondent's mental health difficulties experienced prior to their suicide loss. We also review the clinical implications of these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With survey data collected primarily from peer support group participants, the authors compared stigmatization responses of 462 parents losing children to suicide with 54 other traumatic death survivors and 24 child natural death survivors. Parents who encountered harmful responses and strained relations with family members and non-kin reported heightened grief difficulties. After controlling for time since the death and whether a child's death was traumatic or not, stigmatization continued to be associated with grief difficulties, depression, and suicidal thinking. Suicide survivors reported little differences in stigmatization from other-traumatic-death survivors, a result consistent with other recent studies, suggesting more convergence between these two populations than divergence. (Contains 5 tables.)

Using data from all waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, we investigated the short-term and long-term impact of an adolescent friend's suicide on an adolescent's depression and suicidality. Results suggest that a friend's suicide is associated with heightened suicide thoughts and attempts and greater depression during the first year after loss. Six years later, analyses show concurrent behaviors most relevant to explain suicidality fluctuations. Findings suggest the importance of therapeutic availability, especially during the first year, for those losing a friend to suicide.

Although many clinical studies document a relationship between gambling and suicidality, evidence of this association in general population surveys has been mixed. Probing this association in a nationally representative sample of young adults with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, we made same gender comparisons of depression and suicidality between 298 at-risk gamblers and 13,000 others. Although gamblers of both genders showed higher depression, only females reported significantly higher suicide thoughts and attempts. Males with gambling problems were no more likely than nongamblers to have suicide thoughts or to make prior suicide attempts on three separate measurement occasions.

This study addresses the controversy of whether adopted adolescents are at risk for more mental health problems than the nonadopted and specifically evaluates differences in suicide ideation and depression. Same gender comparisons were made between 346 adopted adolescents and nearly 14,000 others living with biological parents, with nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Results showed few divergences in suicide ideation, attempts, and depression between adopted and nonadopted adolescents and young adults. Future studies employing this same dataset will need to pay closer attention to the high percentages of respondents adopted by blood relatives, which only became known with the collection of the Wave III Add Health data.

We conducted an online survey with individuals bereaved by drug deaths (n = 115), suicide (n = 185) and sudden natural deaths (n = 103), including questions about anticipating the death vs. shock, other behaviors, established measures of mental health and grieving difficulties. Results showed more drug death bereaved anticipating their loved one's death while suicide bereaved were more shocked. Death shocked respondents showed greater PTSD, other mental health, and grieving problems; those anticipating the death had less PTSD, grieving problems, and engaged in more meaning-making. These contrasting patterns should call for diverging clinical strategies in offering aid to these traumatically bereaved mourners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Used National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data to compare adolescent adjustment problems in two-parent adoptive families, two-parent biologic families, and step- or single-parent biologic families. Found that adjustment difficulties were far more common among adolescents in step- and single-parent families than in other groups. Adoptees were more likely than adolescents in two-parent biologic families to run away from home, to obtain counseling, and have lower motivation for college matriculation. (Author/KB)

Compares four subgroups of young adult drug users based on secondary analysis of data originally collected in 1993. Consistent with results from clinical studies, polydrug users were far more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors. Findings demonstrate the need to offer a full complement of drug rehabilitation and education services to secondary school populations. (Author/JDM)

Seeking to provide more systematic information on treatment-seeking and those not seeking help after a suicide, we investigated demographic, experiential and grief problems related correlates among recently suicide bereaved adults, conducting an on-line survey of a sample of U.S. 1,132 adults who lost a loved one to suicide during the last six years. Focusing upon first-degree relative loss survivors (n = 222) we hypothesized those not seeking help would be more likely to report conventional religiosity, greater social support and more use of alternative treatment modalities. Instead, we found those not seeking help were almost twice as likely to not attend religious services, compared to help seekers. Social support enhanced the bereaved individuals’ pursuit of treatments and those who did not obtain help appeared reluctant to getting non-traditional treatment support. Help seekers were more likely to experience post-traumatic growth and less likely to see suicide loss survivorship as stigmatizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide-loss survivors often experience personal growth in the aftermath of a loss, depending on their personal and interpersonal characteristics. The current study focuses on the role of self-forgiveness (SF) as a contributing factor, both directly and indirectly, to posttraumatic growth (PTG) among suicide-loss survivors. Israeli suicide-loss survivors (N = 124) completed questionnaires measuring SF and PTG as well as adaptive coping strategies, social support, and self-disclosure. SF positively contributed to PTG, both directly and indirectly, through interpersonal and cognitive processes. These findings highlight the value of actions promoting self-forgiveness, compassion, and acceptance in psychological interventions with suicide-loss survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a diverse sample of 462 parent survivors of their child's suicide we explored the association of the personal growth subscale of the Hogan Grief Reaction Checklist (HGRC) with mental health problems among longer-term survivors. In this article we offer additional validation for this scale's association with longer-term survivorship and reduced grief difficulties. We also demonstrate its negative relationship with mental health problems. In addition, we explore the demographic correlates of personal growth, which are likely to enable some survivors to experience personal growth sooner than others. Overall, the findings suggest that personal growth represents an important part in the process of healing after suicide loss.

This analysis explores associations between differing death circumstances and the course of bereavement among a sample of 540 bereaved parents. Comparisons were made between parents whose children died by suicide (n = 462), those losing children from other traumatic death circumstances (n = 54), and others whose children died from natural causes (n = 24). Results were mixed, showing suicide survivors with more grief difficulties and other mental health problems on some criteria, though most findings showed no substantive differences between these subgroups. Results also showed, in the first years after loss, repeated suicide attempts and prior negative relationships with the decedent were associated with greater grief difficulties. However, as more time passed, all death circumstance differences were overshadowed by the importance of the time span since loss. This data also suggested that between 3 and 5 years usually marks the turning point, when acute grief difficulties accompanying a suicide loss begin to subside.

Taken among parents who sustained the loss of a child to suicide this study explores the participation of parents in Internet support groups, comparing their demographic and loss-related characteristics (N = 104) to other parent [+ or -]vors participating in face-to-face support groups (N = 297). Contrary to expectations that Internet affiliates would be concentrated in under-served rural areas, we found similar levels of urban, suburban, small city and rural residents in both Internet and face-to-face subsamples. Bivariate and multivariate analyses suggested several important factors contributing to interest in Internet grief support including: 24/7 availability and opportunities to invest more time into this type of support group experience. Compared to their face-to-face group counterparts, Internet affiliates experienced greater suicide stigmatization from their families and other associates. Unable to find ready comfort and support from their personal communities, Internet users--and especially highly depressed survivors--sought and obtained valuable help from the Internet support resource.

Exploring how rising family dissolutions affect adopted children, the authors investigated 2 competing viewpoints: (a) a double jeopardy hypothesis, positing adoptees are susceptible to heightened risks of adjustment problems because of a compounding of parental Josses, versus (b) a buffering hypothesis, suggesting early birth parent losses buffer an adoptee's ability to accept parental loss from divorce. With data from the 1994 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health, 2003), the authors compared adaptations of adolescent adoptees living with 1 adoptive parent (n = 143) with those of children living in step- or single-parent biological families (n = 7,457) in a nationally representative sample. Results were mixed, showing some support for both hypotheses and mostly nonsignificant differences on the largest number of behavioral comparisons made.

Although past research shows social support mitigating grieving difficulties among longer-term suicide bereaved, it remains unproven whether this is true among newly bereaved suicide loss survivors. We investigated this question in an online survey of 1,132 recently bereaved adults reporting on their grief difficulties, PTSD symptoms, and depression. Results suggested social support slightly mitigated grief difficulties and PTSD. For people with high depression symptoms, social support showed a strong negative association for both first-degree relatives and all bereaved others. This evidence suggests that newly bereaved loss survivors are likely to temporarily isolate themselves from social relations after a loss, partly to protect themselves from stigmatization and also to establish new social footholds seeking meaning and promoting their own self-care. More research needs to focus on the transitions suicide loss survivors make from greater to lesser self-imposed isolation as they move from early grief into later stage adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the exorbitant rise in overdose‐related deaths, little is known about the mental health burden associated with this form of loss. Using validated self‐report instruments, the present study investigated the prevalence of pathological symptoms of prolonged grief disorder (PGD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and suicide risk among a sample of overdose loss survivors (n = 115). Comparison groups consisting of other sudden loss survivors (suicide and sudden‐natural loss) were employed to illuminate any shared or unique mental health challenges. Consistent with this study's primary hypothesis, results indicated that the overall mental health burden of overdose loss is substantial. Specifically, after controlling for a number of covariates, overdose loss survivors were approximately three times more likely to meet the symptom severity threshold for PGD, PTSD, and MDD compared to sudden‐natural loss survivors. Overdose loss survivors also appeared to be at risk for GAD symptoms and suicide, but differences were non‐significant after accounting for a number of covariates. Overall, this study is the first to examine this particular constellation of mental health outcomes associated with overdose bereavement, underscoring the need for additional empirical and clinical attention placed on this burgeoning population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. This study compared problem gamblers, problem substance users, dual-problem individuals, and persons without these problems in the general population. Methods. On the basis of computer-assisted telephone interviews of a random sample of Texas adults (n = 6308) standard instruments were used to gauge substance use and gambling problems in the general population. Results. Compared with those having a substance use or gambling problem only, dual-problem individuals were more likely to be young, never-married men, without conventional religious affiliations. There was more dysfunctionality (as evidenced by treatment-seeking and problems with the law) among dual-problem respondents than among those troubled exclusively by gambling or substance use problems. Conclusions. Screening and treatment for gambling problems should be offered in drug treatment and criminal justice arenas. (Am J Public Health. 1998;88:467-470)

With archival data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, this study compares the adult behavior patterns of adoptees (N = 101) and children raised in all other types of attenuated nuclear families (N = 3,949) with those raised till age 18 by both biological parents (N = 6,258). Both adopters from intact two-parent families and those raised in all other types of disrupted nuclear families showed a higher incidence of problem behaviors during adolescence than children raised exclusively by both bio-parents. This was in terms of the following dimensions: delinquency, youth crime, and the use of alcohol and drags. Later, during adulthood, the educational attainments, job statuses, and levels of marital stability of those growing up in all types of disrupted nuclear families lagged behind those raised by both birth parents. At the time when most respondents were entering their thirties, those growing up in attenuated nuclear families were also more likely to report symptoms of depression. Adoptees, too, showed some, but much less clear evidence of long-term difficulties arising from their more turbulent adolescent experiences, compared to those growing up with both bio-parents. By their late twenties and early thirties adoptees reported more instances of cohabitation prior to marriage and more females seemed to report lower levels of marital happiness. Yet, in most all other aspects surveyed-such as the recent use of drugs, educational attainments, job holding, employment successes, asset accumulations, home ownership and marital stability, they appeared much like those raised in intact bio-parent families. Like their counterparts from all types of disrupted nuclear families, adoptees showed a need for greater social services-especially during adolescence - to overcome psycho-social problems emerging at that time. In the absence of having such care, long-term dysfunctional consequences are more likely to occur, especially for those raised in all other types of attenuated nuclear families.

Focusing on the understudied question of substance misuse among suicide bereaved adults we investigated patterns of binge drinking and non-prescribed drug use among a recently bereaved sample (n = 1,132). Comparing our respondents to the non-bereaved, those in the 2022 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (n = 71,369), we did not find heightened problematical substance misuses among our respondents. With t-tests and multiple regression analyses we examined whether binge drinkers and non-prescribed drug users had heightened levels of grief difficulties, PTSD, self-blaming and depression compared to others not bingeing or using non-prescribed drugs. Results showed binge drinkers had more of all these grieving problems when important confounding variables were also considered. Analysis of the demographic correlates of bingeing showed them dimly aware of their own additional grieving and substance misusing problems. Since 75% indicated being under the care of counseling professionals, this represents an important opportunity for psycho-educational helping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceived suicide stigma and consequent secrecy about suicide loss could contribute to impaired mental health among suicide loss survivors. Using online survey data from 195 suicide loss survivors, higher perceived suicide stigma was associated with more grief difficulties, higher suicidality, and less personal growth. Secrecy partly mediated the association between perceived suicide stigma and grief difficulties as well as suicidality and completely mediated the association between perceived suicide stigma and personal growth. Our findings suggest that supporting suicide loss survivors in coping with perceived suicide stigma could reduce secrecy about suicide loss and by this improve their mental health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored parents' views of the trajectories of their adult children's eventual deaths from drugs with in-depth qualitative interviews from 11 bereaved parents. Parents reported great emotional distress and high financial burdens as their children went through death spirals of increasing drug involvements. These deaths often entailed anxiety-inducing interactions with police or medical personnel, subsequent difficulties with sharing death cause information with socially significant others, and longer term problems from routine interactions. Eventually, though, many of these longer term bereaved parents reported overcoming these obstacles and developing posttraumatic growth. Openly disclosing the nature of the death seemed to be an important building block for their healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several previous studies suggested that primary care physicians can provide important bereavement assistance to survivors of suicide, yet no study has investigated whether suicide-bereaved patients perceive their physicians as helpful. Contacting bereavement communities on social media, we collected online survey data from 146 bereaved respondents reporting suicides causing them severe emotional distress. Data analysis suggested that nearly half (48%) of the respondents encountered positive, help-offering responses from physicians, compared to 10% whose responses were deemed as negative. Analysis of our data suggested that loss survivors' perceptions of a physician's helping or reproachful responses were associated with differences in grief difficulties and mental health distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]