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Economic Stress and Suicide: Multilevel Analyses
Author(s) -
Dooley David,
Catalano Ralph,
Rook Karen,
Serxner Seth
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-278x.1989.tb00565.x
Subject(s) - suicidal ideation , unemployment , psychology , suicide prevention , suicide rates , multilevel model , aggregate data , demography , poison control , medicine , environmental health , economics , sociology , economic growth , statistics , pathology , mathematics
This paper reports the second of two studies of the hypothesis that the economy affects suicide; both studies were based in the same community during approximately the same time period. Although many aggregate‐level tests have been conducted using archival measures of unemployment and suicide (the approach used in Part 1), the impact of economic climate on suicidal ideation has not been measured at the individual level. In the study reported here, aggregate economic indicators were combined with individual‐level measures of stressful events, symptoms, and suicidal ideation obtained in a survey of Los Angeles from 1978 to 1982. Each of the two studies revealed small associations between economic stress and suicide or suicidal ideation, but they were inconsistent with respect to specific subgroups.