Suicide Attempts by Adolescent Latinas: An Exploratory Study of Individual and Family Correlates

Epidemiological data show high rates of suicide attempts among adolescent Latinas. Few studies have addressed the psychosocial, cultural and family correlates of suicide attempts among this age group of a rapidly growing population. The authors studied 31 adolescent Hispanic females who were receiving mental health services; 14 girls had attempted suicide in the previous five years and 17 had never attempted suicide. The two groups of girls did not differ significantly with respect to demographic profiles, levels of depression, family type, acculturation, or self-esteem. However, as hypothesized, the mutuality between girls and their mothers was lower among suicide attempters. Maladaptive coping skills of withdrawal and wishful thinking were more commonly used by attempters, and non-attempters used emotional regulation and problem-solving more frequently. Findings are discussed within the context of the empirical and theoretical literature and implications for practice are considered.     

Local polynomial estimation of Poisson intensities in the presence of reporting delays

Summary.  The system for monitoring suicides in Hong Kong has considerable delays in reporting as the cause of death needs to be determined by a coroner's investigation. However, timely estimates of suicide rates are desirable to assist in the formulation of public health policies. This motivated us to develop a non-parametric procedure to estimate the intensity function of a Poisson process in the presence of reporting delays. We give closed form estimators of the Poisson intensity and the delay distribution, conduct simulation studies to evaluate the method proposed and derive their asymptotic properties. The method proposed is applied to estimate the intensity of suicide in Hong Kong.     

Trust and the Dilemmas of Suicide Risk Assessment in Non-government Mental Health Services

Reducing suicide rates is a national mental health priority as over 2,200 people die from suicide each year in Australia. Increasingly, nongovernment organisations (NGOs) provide services to people experiencing severe and persistent mental illnesses—a significant cohort at risk of suicide. While clinical services are generally seen as the arbiters of risk, little is known of how suicide risk assessments are undertaken in NGOs. This article reports the findings of a survey-based pilot study of 44 frontline workers in mental health-focused NGOs in Tasmania, Australia, with the aim of sketching a preliminary picture of this under-studied terrain. We identified the assessment practices utilised by workers, and the challenges and dilemmas they experienced in navigating issues of trust in suicide risk assessment in contexts where they often felt vulnerable and under-prepared. We argue that these early findings demonstrate the need for organisations to foster cultures of trust to facilitate both the activities of relationship building between practitioners and clients, and those of monitoring risk.     

青少年自杀现象与社会工作介入策略

青少年自杀现象已成为备受关注的社会问题。自杀意念率较高、明显的性别与地域差异、低龄化趋向、易受感染性、冲动性、原因的阶段性是其特点。导致青少年自杀有认知偏差、青春期内在冲突、不良个性特征与心理疾病等个体原因,有家庭结构残缺、关系不融洽及教养方式不当等家庭因素,有学业压力、教师素质、同伴影响的学校因素,同时与社会文化、现代传媒不良影响有关。社会工作介入的策略包括：倡导生命教育及形成预防机制以预防,采用区分对待、安抚陪伴、初次评估及支持系统的建构以干预。     

Opinions toward suicide: Cross-national evaluation of cultural and religious effects on individuals

This study evaluates the role that religious and cultural values have on individual opinions toward suicide worldwide. Using multilevel modeling with data from the fourth wave of the World Values Survey (42,299 individuals in 43 countries), the current study is designed to analyze the effect of individual (i.e., micro-level), and country (i.e., macro-level) characteristics on opinions toward suicide. Specifically, cultural values, religious affiliation, religious importance, and church attendance are analyzed at both the individual and country levels to evaluate the impact of individual and country level effects on opinions toward suicide. The results show that individual opinions toward suicide are influenced by individual belief as well as by the cultural and religious characteristics of their country. The results suggest that evaluation of individual opinions toward controversial behavior should account for the unique and cross-interaction effects of micro- and macro-level effects.     

Suicide and unemployment in Japan: Evidence from municipal level suicide rates and age-specific suicide rates

Most previous studies on the relationship between unemployment and suicide use either individual level data or large unit aggregate level data. The former typically fail to distinguish the observed association from the causal link, and the latter often produce inconsistent findings on the unemployment-suicide relationship, making it difficult to draw policy implications. The present study contributes to this line of research by using two semi-aggregate level data in Japan. The results show that unemployment is significantly associated with male suicide rates, especially those of prime age working men, while the results are not straightforward for female suicide rates.     

The Role of Positive and Negative Social Exchanges Between Adolescents,their Peers and Family as Predictors of Suicide Ideation

The role of positive and negative social exchanges between adolescents, their peers and family as predictors of suicide ideation was investigated in a national random sample of 1591 adolescents from the US National Comorbidity Survey. Four indexes measured socio-emotional exchanges by type (positive or negative) and by source (family or peers). Negative exchanges with family were associated with increased suicide ideation scores in younger (15–17) but not in older (18–19) adolescents. Positive support provided as significant buffering effect that was age-specific and independent of gender, income or mood disorders. Providers, especially social workers need to identify both positive and negative exchanges that adolescents experience with family and peers.     

中国城市老人自杀问题分析

文章将在老龄化和城市变迁的背景下审视中国城市老人自杀的问题。笔者对中国自杀数据的整理和分析显示,中国城市老人在千禧年后的自杀率超过2000年之前的年均水平。以往的研究通常将久病厌世和家庭纠纷视为中国城市老人自杀的主要诱因。笔者却认为,相对剥夺感的大小可以强化或缓解这两个导致自杀的驱动力,所以应该在相关的分析中加以重视。为此,本文将集中分析医保的缺乏和城市开发对城市老人自杀问题的影响。     

农村女性的迁移与中国自杀率的下降

我国的自杀率在过去20多年出现了一个明显下降的趋势。导致这一趋势的原因有二：一是农村自杀率的下降影响到全国自杀率的下降,二是农村自杀率的下降受到农村女性自杀率下降的左右。针对农村女性自杀率下降的原因,文中的分析着重于改变中国社会结构的大规模人口迁移,即我国境内大批农民离开乡土到城市打工。我国农民的打工潮包括女性的广泛参与。到最近几年,女性离开农村进入城市打工的人数每年有4000万之多。农村女性的大规模迁移规避了三种既往的自杀风险,即农村女性既往的从属地位、既往的家庭纠纷、既往的自杀工具。所以,农村女性的迁移是分析中国自杀率下降的关键之一。     

自杀研究:困境表述、理论检视与进路转换

高自杀率的客观现实需要研究者正视并关怀我国的自杀问题。研究现状的不足主要是研究者缺乏对自杀现象的意义理解,以及缺乏对自杀现象的区域差异的解释。自杀研究的心理学或精神病学的理论传统忽视自杀的社会因素,将自杀的社会当作高度同质性的实在来处理无法完成理解自杀现象的区域差异的使命。自杀研究的实证社会学理论传统无法逾越作为个体的自杀与作为整体的自杀率之间的鸿沟,过于倚重统计数字的研究方式使其容易落入＂统计自杀＂的窠臼,而脱离了日常生活中的＂经验自杀＂。从人文主义社会学传统出发,将自杀行动作为分析单位,建构自杀行动的理想类型,并借此理解自杀行动的社会意义,进而理解自杀的区域差异当能弥补当前研究的不足,并开辟新的自杀研究空间。