Relation of Marital Separation and Divorce to Suicide: A Report*

Abstract

This paper examines the relation of marital separation and divorce to suicide. The persons studied are applicants to the Benjamin Rush Center, the crisis clinic division of the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center/Los Angeles Psychiatric Service. The sample consists of 238 subjects, of whom 39, or 16.4% were suicidal, and 23 had made one or more suicide attempts at some prior date. Those seriously discussing separation, but not actually separated, tended to be less frequently suicidal than the long-term separated/divorced (.05 less than p less than .10). The study further examined the relationship of important events and interspouse transactions to suicide potential. Significant associations were found in the relationship of suicide potential to verbal attack by spouse (p = .03), vacillation in the last two weeks (p = .02), and vacillation since the first serious discussion of divorce (p = .02). Several other associations approached statistical significance. The authors believe that the findings in regard to vacillation and interspouse aggression are especially interesting and merit further study.