Use of the risk-rescue rating scale with adolescent suicide attempters: A cautionary note

The assessment of the medical lethality and intent of suicide attempts has been considered an important area of research for those interested in suicide. The current study examined the usefulness of the Risk-Rescue Rating Scale with 109 adolescent suicide attempters and found a restricted range of variability, which, in turn, resulted in poor interrater reliability on a number of items. Results suggest that the Risk-Rescue Rating Scale is of limited usefulness with adolescents, and alternative approaches to assessing lethality and suicidal intent with this age group are discussed.     

Cognitive characteristics of adolescent suicide attempters

The present study examined the relationship among psychiatric diagnosis, depression, attributional style, and hopelessness among 69 adolescent suicide attempters and 40 psychiatrically hospitalized adolescent controls. Contrary to predictions, the suicide attempters were more likely than the nonsuicidal group to attribute good events to global causes. No differences in attributional style were found across the depressed versus nondepressed subjects. However, there was a modest relationship between depression and attributional style. Results suggest that maladaptive cognitive characteristics are present in adolescent clinical samples but may be less specific to suicide attempters than is often suggested.     

Patterns of response to childhood asthma

The present study was designed to evaluate the concordance between parental and child ratings of asthma symptoms, and to determine the relationship between symptom ratings and morbidity data. The sample consisted of 162 asthmatic children from various treatment settings and 105 parents. The symptom pattern assessment employed a modified-for-children version of the Asthma Symptom Checklist (CASCL), which was completed independently by the parent and by the child. The CASCL data were factor analyzed to replicate the findings of the earlier panic/fear work. Factor analysis of both versions of the Asthma Symptom Checklist yielded three interpretable factors, which we labeled General Physical Symptoms, Panic/Fear, and Hyperventilation/Irritability. Correlations between parent and child across individual items ranged from 0.00 to 0.35. Correlations between the parents and the children across factor scores resulted in modest agreement. Using medication level, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations as indices of functional morbidity, many of the parents' and none of the children's factor scores were significantly related to functional morbidity.