Suicidal Children's and adolescents' responses to early memories test.

Early memories were administered to 59 hospitalized suicidal and nonsuicidal children and adolescents. Three groups were formed: Talkers, those who had made serious threats to end their lives; attempters, who acted intentionally to end their lives; and nonsuicidal controls. The early memories were administered by a procedure developed by the author and then rated on a number of variables. Both suicidal groups gave significantly more early memories than the controls. Attempters depicted themselves more often with another person in their earliest early memories. Talkers differed from the other two groups on several variables suggesting higher ego development and better object relationships. The results encouraged further research with early memories as a tool for understanding psychopathology.