Childhood Parental Death and Lifetime Suicide Attempt of the Opposite-Gender Offspring in a Nationwide Community Sample of Korea HONG JIN JEON, MD, PHD, JIN PYO HONG, MD, PHD, MAURIZIO FAVA, MD, DAVID MISCHOULON, MD, PHD, MAREN NYER,PHD, AYA INAMORI, BA, JEE HOON SOHN, MD, SUJEONG SEONG, MD, AND MAENG JE CHO, MD, PHD Although previous studies have shown that childhood parental death influ- ences suicide attempts of their offspring, few studies have examined influence of gender and age at exposure. Koreans show the third highest suicide rate in the world, and many children and adolescents lost their parents during and after the Korean War. A total of 12,532 adults, randomly selected through a one-person- per-household method, completed the Korean version of the Composite Interna- tional Diagnostic Interview and questionnaire for suicidal ideation, plan, and attempt (response rate 80.2%). A total of 2,332 subjects experienced biological parental death in childhood (18.6%). Male suicide attempts were associated with age of exposure to maternal death from 0 to 4 years (adjusted OR = 4.48, 95% CI 1.32–15.18) and from 5 to 9 years (adjusted OR = 5.52, 95% CI 1.97–16.46), but not with paternal death, after adjusting for age, education years, marital status, monthly income, and psychiatric comorbidities. Female suicide attempts were associated with paternal death from 5 to 9 years (adjusted OR = 2.20, 95% CI 1.13–4.27), but not with maternal death. Childhood parental death is significantly associated with lifetime suicide attempt in the opposite-gender offspring, especially when exposure occurs before age 10. HONG JIN JEON , Department of Psychia- try, Depression Center, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea, and Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; JIN PYO HONG , Department of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, Ulsan University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea; MAURIZIO FAVA, DAVID MISCHOULON, MAREN NYER, and AYA INAMORI, Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; JEE HOON SOHN,SUJEONG SEONG and MAENG JE CHO, Department of Psy- chiatry & Behavioral Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea. The authors wish to express their grati- tude to 12 local investigators, 160 interviewers, and the Korean Ministry of Health & Welfare for their cooperation and assistance. Funding for this study was provided by the Korean Ministry of Health & Welfare. This research was also supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technol- ogy (No. 2011-0013064) and Samsung Biomedi- cal Research Institute Grant (C-B1-311); they had no further role in study design; in the col- lection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to sub- mit the article for publication. Address correspondence to Maeng Je Cho, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28 Yeongeon-dong, Chon- gno-gu, Seoul 110-744, South Korea; E-mail: mjcho@plaza.snu.ac.kr Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 1 © 2013 The American Association of Suicidology DOI: 10.1111/sltb.12042