ithin the vast literature on suicide and parasuicide increas-W ingly known as deliberate self harm or self harm,' there is a paucity of prevalence or population-based studies. There are few cross-cultural studies, and none that we could find centring on sole parents and self harm, despite many that indicate much is common to sole parents and suicide at tempter^.^.^ Such common factors may confound any real differences between those exhibiting self harm and those who do not.4 This in-depth, exploratory study did not permit complex causal modelling as the number of questions posed was large while the sample size was small. Rather, it suggests trends and associations the authors believe are not likely to be due to chance, and are worthy of hrther research, and closer policy attention and social support.In the 1991 Census, there were 552,336 sole parent families in Australia. By 1996, this had risen to 672,868, which represented 35.6% of all families with dependent children -by far the fastest growing family type in A~stralia.'~ On average, 463 sole parent households were created each week between these Censuses, and the increase since 1986 has been remarkable.5 Aboriginal people make up about 1.5% of the Australian population. The 1986 Census showed that Adelaide, South Australia's capital with more than one million people, had the largest concentration of Aboriginal people in that State (5,696 or 40% ofthe SA Aboriginal population). By the 1996 Census, this number had risen sharply to 9,387 representing closer to one half (46%).In 1986, Hugo reported that 'of all Aboriginal families in SA, more than 1-in-4 is a single parent family, compared with less than 1-in-13 of all families',6 while in Adelaide AbstractObjective: To test the hypothesis that, controlling for socio-demographic factors, destructive behaviour among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal female sole parents will not be significantly different. Method: This study took place among an urban population of sole parents in Adelaide, South Australia, living in government housing. Two sample subsets were made up of 52 Aboriginal and 45 non-Aboriginal mothers from similar postcodes. Trained interviewers administered a questionnaire which, in addition to basic demographic data, elicited information concerning finance, housing, upbringing, experience of abuse and police interaction. The major issue of concern in the study was suicide attempt. Results: 141-3 of the whole sample, 2-in-5 of the non-Aboriginal and 1 -in-4 of the Aboriginal subset had attempted suicide at least once and half more than once. Statistical differences among 'attempters' vs. 'non-attempters', irrespective of ethnicity, included increased familial alcohol abuse, physical and sexual abuse, economic difficulty, poor self esteem and perceived discriminatory treatment by welfare agencies and, in the case of Aboriginals, by police. Conclusion: The social environment is critical to understanding destructive behaviour, including self-harm, regardless of culture or ethnicity. The data show that suicid...