Assessment of Suicide Risk in Abused Adolescents Using the Rosebush Visualization Technique
Graduation Date
Fall 1994
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy
Degree Granting Institution
Notre Dame de Namur University
Program Name
Art Therapy
Abstract
The Rosebush Visualization Technique was used to study a group of thirty-nine adolescents to contribute to the development of an assessment that would aid in the prediction of suicide and abuse. Thirty nine-graphic and linguistic markers were compiled from art therapy theorists. The hope was to delineate markers specific to those with histories of abuse (group 1), those with histories of suicide attempts (group 2), those with a combination of the former histories (group 3), and those with neither of the former histories (group 4). The results indicated that there were four markers chosen by group two and five different markers chosen by both groups two and three, all bearing statistical significance. These findings show that the Rosebush Visualization Technique may strongly influence the development of a protocol designed to discriminate between those adolescents' at-risk for a suicide attempt.