The Suicide Narrative Interview: adolescents’ attachment expectancies and symptom severity in a clinical sample

ABSTRACT

Insecure attachment styles have consistently been identified as risk factors for adolescent psychopathology and, more specifically, suicidal ideation. However, much less is known about the mechanisms that account for the relationship between attachment styles and severity of suicidal ideation within clinical samples. In the current study, adolescents’ expectancies for caregiver availability and responsiveness were coded from transcripts of the Suicide Narrative Interview in a clinical sample of 129 depressed and suicidal adolescents. Results indicated that negative expectancies for caregiver availability in the Suicide Narrative Interview were associated both with attachment insecurity and with the intensity of adolescents’ suicidal ideation. The implications of adolescents’ expectancies for caregiver availability as targets for clinical intervention are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescent attachment
• attachment expectancies
• suicide
• symptom severity
• suicide narrative

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under Grant R01MH091059. The content of this publication is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under Grant R01MH091059.