The results of this study should be interpreted with four important limitations in mind. First, our analysis was based on retrospective self-reports. This concern is limited somewhat by our focus on suicide attempts in only the past 12-months; however, it is possible that time-varying risk factors (e.g., marital status, income) reported for the past 12-months may have changed after respondents’ suicide attempts. Retrospective recall of childhood adversities and parental psychopathology might have been influenced by respondents’ current mood or recent suicide attempt.68, 69 Given these issues, these results should be considered preliminary until the risk indices developed are cross-validated prospectively. Second, although the overall response rate was at an acceptable level, response rates varied across countries and in some cases were below commonly accepted standards. We controlled for differential response using post-stratification adjustments, but it is possible that response rates were related to the presence of suicidal behaviors or mental disorders, which could have biased cross-national comparisons. Third, there may have been cross-national differences in the willingness to report on suicidal behaviors and in the interpretation of items assessing risk
