Table E.4.10 Specific issues in the assessment of pre-pubertal children – example of questions*
Interviewing children whose grasp of the concepts of time, causality and death may be limited:
− “Do you think about killing yourself more than once or twice a day?”
− “Have you tried to kill yourself since last summer/since school began?”
− “What do you think would happen when you tried to jump out of the window?”
− “What would happen if you died; what would that be like?”
Interviewing parents about suicidal ideation and behavior in their children
− “What exactly happened (step by step) on the day your child spoke of wanting or tried to hurt himself?”
− “How did you find out that your child was thinking about or trying to hurt himself?”
− “What were you doing when your child was thinking about or trying to hurt himself?”
− “What happened after your child thought about or tried to hurt himself?” *Jacobsen et al (1994)