CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 192Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesGrief, Bereavement, and Mental HealthHomicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse

Psychiatric Morbidity, Violent Crime, and Suicide Among Children and Adolescents Exposed to Parental Death

Open access
Wilcox, Holly C., Kuramoto, Satoko J., Lichtenstein, Paul, Långström, Niklas, Brent, David A., Runeson, Bo·2010·Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
DOI 10.1097/00004583-201005000-00012
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Objective This retrospective cohort study examined the risk for suicide, psychiatric hospitalization, and violent criminal convictions among offspring of parents who died from suicide, accidents, and other causes.Method Population-based data from multiple Swedish national registers were linked from 1969 to 2004. Participants were 44,397 offspring of suicide decedents, 41,467 offspring of accident decedents, 417,365 offspring of parents who died by other causes, and 3,807,867 offspring of alive parents. We estimated risk by mode of parental death (suicide, accident, other) and offspring age at parental death (childhood, adolescence, young adulthood).Results Offspring of suicide decedents were at greater risk for suicide than offspring of alive parents (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.9; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.4 to 2.5), whereas offspring of accident decedents and other parental death were not at increased risk (p < .001). The risk for offspring suicide differed by the developmental period during which parental suicide occurred. Child and adolescent offspring of suicide decedents were at threefold greater risk for suicide (IRR = 3.0; 95% CI = 1.7 to 5.3; IRR = 3.1, 95% CI = 2.1 to 4.6, respectively). Young adults were not at increased risk for suicide (IRR = 1.3; 95% CI = 0.9 to 1.9). Offspring of suicide decedents had an especially high risk of hospitalization for suicide attempt, depressive, psychotic, and personality disorders. Child survivors of parental suicide were at particularly high risk for hospitalization for drug disorders and psychosis. All offspring who experienced parental death, regardless of mode or age, were at increased risk for violent criminal convictions.Conclusions Mode of parental death and offspring age at parental death are associated with offspring long-term risk for suicide and hospitalization for specific psychiatric disorders.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1097/00004583-201005000-00012

Cites

32 of 32 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Odds ratios analyses indicate a two-fold to three-fold risk of offspring suicide, independent of family history of psychopathology.

    “Odds ratios analyses indicate a two-fold (Qin et al., 2002;Wilcox et al., 2010) to three-fold (Niederkrotenthaler et al., 2012) risk of offspring suicide, independent of family history of psychopathology.”

    From Pre- and postloss features of adolescent suicide bereavement: A systematic review (2016) · cites this paper as Wilcox et al., 2010

  • A long-term increased risk of at-risk behaviors after parental death, irrespective of type of death, has been reported.

    “a long-term increased risk of at-risk behaviors after parental death, irrespective of type of death has been reported”

    From Pre- and postloss features of adolescent suicide bereavement: A systematic review (2016) · cites this paper as Wilcox et al. (2010)

  • Several studies have found an age effect with impact of suicide being stronger when experienced at younger age (e.g., before ages 10 or 12), with regard to offspring suicide and attempted suicide, and early onset as well as long-term risk of attempted suicide hospitalization.

    “Several studies have found an age effect with impact of suicide being stronger when experienced at younger age (e.g., before ages 10 or 12), with regard to offspring suicide (Agerbo et al., 2002;Niederkrotenthaler et al., 2012;Wilcox et al., 2010) and attempted suicide, and early onset as well as long-term risk of attempted suicide hospitalization (Kuramoto, Runeson, Stuart, Lichtenstein, & Wilcox”

    From Pre- and postloss features of adolescent suicide bereavement: A systematic review (2016) · cites this paper as Wilcox et al., 2010

  • Registry-based studies describe health service use but not informal support.

    “Registry-based studies describe health service use18–21 but not informal support, a resource known to be valued after suicide bereavement.10”

    From Support received after bereavement by suicide and other sudden deaths: A cross-sectional UK study of 3432 young bereaved adults (2017) · cites this paper as [21]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 33 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Wilcox, H. C., Kuramoto, S. J., Lichtenstein, P., Långström, N., Brent, D. A., & Runeson, B.
Affiliations
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
  • Karolinska Institutet (SE)
  • University of Pittsburgh (US)
Corresponding author
Wilcox, Holly C.
ORCID
Venue
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2010-05
Volume
49
Issue
5
Pages
514-523
ISSN
0890-8567 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1097/00004583-201005000-00012
OpenAlex
W2046578485
Cited by
192
References
33
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 11
FWCI
10.51
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression
  • Karolinska Institutet
  • Vetenskapsrådet
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (F31DA026318)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse
Keywords
parental suicide, parental death, psychiatric hospitalization, violent crime, criminal conviction, depressive disorders, psychosis, personality disorders, children and adolescents
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Attitude to Death, Mental Disorders, Cause of Death, Child, Crime, Death, Humans, Parent-Child Relations, Parents, Suicide, Time Factors, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review