Attitudes toward Suicidal Women Based on Gender of the Participant and Race of the Target Figure.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of gender on attitudes toward Black and White suicidal females. Participants included 37 Caucasian graduate students who completed demographic questionnaires, Suicide Behavior Questionnaires (SBQ) (Ellis & Jones, 1996), and one of two scenarios with a modified version of the Suicide Attitude Vignette Experience Scale (SAVE) (Stillion, White, Edwards, & McDowell, 1989). The research design was a 2 (sex of participant) x 2 (suicide ideation of participant) x 2 (race of target figure) independent groups factorial. Independent ANOVAS were performed to interpret the significance of main and interaction effects. No main effects were found. Two 2-way interaction effects were revealed. Women presented with the White female target figure had the highest mean score. Suicide ideators had the highest mean on rating the target figure as a close personal friend. None of the hypotheses proved to be significant. Future researchers should use a more heterogeneous sample