Although suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States, there are little empirical data available on psychological factors which may lead an adolescent to consider or attempt suicide. To address this issue, the relationships among depression, social skills, and severity of suicidal attempt were investigated in 30 adolescents who were admitted to a general hospital following a suicide gesture or attempt. Subjects were classified into high (N=16) or low (N=14) risk attempters based on their history of previous attempts, lethality of attempt, and disposition (inpatient versus outpatient treatment). Subjects completed the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Hopelessness Scale for Children, and the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters. Data analysis revealed no differences between the high risk and the low risk suicide attempters on any of the self-report measures used. Nonetheless, the results suggest that overall levels of psychological distress as reflected by the Hopelessness Scale and the CDI may contribute to suicide attempts since the mean scores obtained in this study were much higher than those reported in studies with normal children and with a mixed group of child psychiatric patients. In addition, the negative relationship between depression and appropriate social skills which is seen in normal populations was not found in this group of adolescent suicide attempters. (NB)