In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that 6.3% of high school students attempted suicide in the previous year. Given the lethal consequences of suicide attempts, determining risk factors among adolescents becomes particularly important. In general, psychiatric disorders and significant psychosocial impairments are known to be associated with suicide attempts. However, previous research attempting to identify specific risk factors in adolescents has been somewhat ambiguous. However, one thing is consistent. When measuring the risk of an adolescent committing suicide, information must come from a variety of sources and perspectives. These sources may include but are not limited to a clinical interview with the adolescent, information provided by the parent or guardian, standardized assessments, and the individual's prior psychiatric records. Additionally, past research has shown that self-assessment tools have produced clinically meaningful results. Specifically, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Suicide Probability Scale, and the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire-Junior High Version were particularly sensitive in measuring risk factors and predicting suicide attempts over a six-month period. Despite the sensitivity of these self-report measures, a problem remains. Adolescent males commit suicide 3.6 times more than their female counterparts. However, males report having suicidal thoughts and report considering suicide less frequently than females. Therefore, there is a clear gap between male adolescents' reported suicidal thoughts and actual suicide attempts. Gender therefore becomes a moderator of the value of reported suicidal ideation among adolescents....... middle of paper ...... and hospital. This therefore limits the ability of the SIQ-JR findings as a predictor of suicide attempts for any adolescent who may be suicidal but is not hospitalized. This would have high clinical significance because patients who are not admitted to hospitals have significantly less supervision. Monitoring and predicting suicide attempts in this population would be exceptionally important. Another factor that was not controlled for was personality disorders. Given limitations in the ability of the SIQ-JR to predict suicide attempts in males, it is important to examine any factors that may contribute to increasing the success and accuracy of suicide risk assessments. It is possible that knowledge of personality disorders among male participants would help detect suicidal ideation when these participants are less willing to report suicidal feelings.