Death and suicide concepts in a sample of Mexican minors between 5 to 14 years old

Abstract

The concepts of death and suicide might help to understand and to identify children and adolescents at suicide risk. The aim of this work was to identify the semantic structure of death and suicide concepts in children and adolescents. 47 children and teenagers between 5 and 14 years old participated; none of them had a history of suicide attempts. A semi-structured interview regarding their beliefs about death and suicide was applied. Children associated the death and the suicide to visual representations, the teenagers referred to causal explanations of death and suicide. In all different ages, the concepts of suicide and death were associated with catholic beliefs; besides, all participants had negative attitudes to suicide.