Reasons for Living versus Reasons for Dying: Examining the Internal Debate of Suicide

Abstract

The Reasons for Living vs. Reasons for Dying (RFL/RFD) Assessment was used to obtain suicidal outpatients' top five reasons for living and for dying, respectively. Forty‐nine suicidal university counseling center patients provided 173 RFL and 145 RFD responses. These responses were organized into eight RFL coding categories and nine RFD coding categories. Two coders trained in the RFL/RFD coding system showed high levels of inter‐rater reliability ( K RFL = .81; K RFD = .80). Chi‐square results for RFL and RFD coding categories showed that the coding categories were not equally salient to these suicidal patients.