Clergy's attitudes toward suicide and recognition of suicide lethality
- 1 July 1985
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Death Studies
- Vol. 9 (3-4) , 187-199
- https://doi.org/10.1080/07481188508252517
Abstract
Five groups of clergy (Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, Jewish rabbi, Eastern religious leaders, and nontraditional ministers; N = 112) were administered a scale to assess their knowledge of suicide lethality (the Recognition of Suicide Lethality) and a suicide attitudinal questionnaire (the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire), scored on 15 factors. Significant group differences were obtained for the RSL scale and seven of the SOQ factors, and significant correlations were obtained between RSL scores and ten SOQ factors. The results indicate that clergy as a group are not able to recognize signs of suicide lethality any better than educated laypersons, and that such recognition is related to a cluster of attitudes, including that suicide is more reflective of personal dynamics rather than external factors.Keywords
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