A total of 26 SB children, aged 5 to 17 years, and their 15 surviving parents were compared with 332 children bereaved from parental death not caused by suicide (NSB) and their 201 surviving parents in interviews 1, 6, 13, and 25 months after the death. Parents who committed suicide evidenced more psychopathology than parents who died from causes other than suicide. Contrary to expectations, surviving SB parents were not more impaired than NSB parents. Before the death, SB families were less stable than NSB families, and relationships with the deceased SB parent were compromised; however, no differences were detected between groups in children's relationships with their surviving parents. Likewise, few differences were found in social support or changes in religious beliefs. The study concludes that SB children generally come from families with a history of psychopathology and substantial family disruption; however, surviving SB parents did not exhibit higher rates of psychopathology than other bereaved parents, and many had positive relationships with their children. SB children do suffer more psychopathology than their surviving parents. Thus, programs to assist surviving parents with their children's reaction to parental suicide might be useful. Longer term follow-up of these families will help establish how families weather the suicide of a parent over time. 1 table and 24 references