Clinical and psychological characteristics of fathers of teenage girls who have committed a suicidal attempt

The aim of this work is to run a comprehensive clinical and psychological assessment of fathers whose teenage daughters attempted suicide. Materials and methods: 31 men whose daughters attempted suicide were examined. As diagnostic tools we used the following popular methods: a Plutchik-Kellerman-Konte questionnaire, State Anger Inventory questionnaire, Hardiness Survey, Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, Suicide Risk Questionnaire, Family Relations Analysis Questionnaire. The results showed that the group of fathers has rather high autoaggressive potential, with negative self-evaluation and low level of vitality dominating. They tend to use displacement and projection as protective psychological mechanisms. An overall analysis of family relationships indicates hypoprotection accompanied with instable parenting style, which in general characterizes the studied group as vulnerable in many significant suicidological aspects. Possible ‘family systematics’ in relation to child suicidality makes it necessary to run a parallel correction of parents’ prosuicidal features when working with female teenage suicide attempters.