Social Problem Solving in Suicidal Adolescents

Whether adolescent suicide attempters would have deficits in interpersonal problem solving and the relation between social problem solving, suicide intent, and medical lethality were evaluated. Compared with psychiatric and normal controls, adolescents who attempted suicide exhibited poorer social problem-solving abilities, particularly in terms of problem orientation. Specifically, suicide attempters brought more maladaptive cognitive-emotional-behavioral response sets to problematic situations than did psychiatric and normal controls. Both suicide attempters and psychiatric controls had similar deficits in problem-solving skills (e.g., generation of alternatives, decision making, and solution implementation) compared with nonhospitalized peers. Social problem solving was not found to be correlated with suicide lethality or intent.