Gender and Suicide Method: Do Women Avoid Facial Disfiguration?

This study hypothesizes that women are less likely than men to use suicide methods that disfigure the face. Gender differences in the use of suicide methods that disfigure the face were examined using medical examiner??s files of 621 suicides covering a 10-year period from Summit County, Ohio in the U.S. Results showed that while firearms are the preferred method for both women and men, women were less likely to shoot themselves in the head. A series of logistic regression analyses revealed that gender, age, stressful life events and prior suicide attempts were predictors of methods that disfigure the face/head. Significant differences between men and women in correlates of suicide method emerged when the sample was split by gender. The results support the position that women who commit suicide are more likely than men who commit suicide to avoid facial disfiguration.     

WOMEN, HOMELESSNESS, AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE Moving Beyond the Stereotypes

This study examined the characteristics of homeless women with sub stance abuse problems. Data were collected on a sample of 323 home less substance abusers. First, 49 women and 274 men were compared to demonstrate distinct problems and treatment needs of the women. Results showed that the women were more likely than the men to abuse drugs, but less likely to receive substance abuse treatment. In addition, women spent more time in doubled-up living arrangements, and were more likely to receive outpatient psychiatric treatment. Second, two subgroups of women were compared: those who had been homeless for 6 months or less, and those who had been homeless longer than 6 months during their lifetime. The women who had been homeless longer were less educated, younger when they first became homeless, and were more likely to abuse alcohol, to have been assaulted, and to have attempted suicide. Implications for research and treatment are discussed.     

Gender and Suicide Risk: The Role of Wound Site

That males have higher suicide rates than females is one of the most empirically documented social facts in suicidology, but the reasons for this continue to be debated. For the present paper, we tested a neglected contributing factor to the gender suicide ratio: wound site or the area of the body that is wounded in firearm suicides. Males may have a higher suicide rate, in part, due to their greater likelihood than women for shooting themselves in the head as opposed to the body. This has been related to gender differences in fear of facial disfigurement and suicide intent. Data from the Wayne County Medical examiner's office regarding 807 suicides committed with firearms was analyzed. The dependent variable was dichotomous and referred to the location of the site of the wound: gunshot to the head vs. gunshot to the body. Controls for demographic covariates of suicide included age and race of the suicide victim. The results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis determined that women were 47% less apt than men to shoot themselves in the head. Further analysis determined that women were less apt than men to use shotguns and rifles in their suicides (weapons that make head shooting more awkward). The findings are consistent with the notion that women are more concerned than men with facial disfigurement, and that women have a lower desire to die than men.     

Do Written Reports of Suicide Induce High-School Students to Believe that Suicidal Contagion Will Occur?1

To see if high-school students who read that a distressed adolescent knew about suicide thought that suicidal contagion would occur, 66 consenting high-school students read a written account of John, a high-schooler with multiple problems including knowing someone who had died (either by suicide or viral illness). They then anonymously completed the UCLA Loneliness scale and a questionnaire about what John (or they in the same situation) might do. When John knew of a sympathetic response to a viral illness death, or an unsympathetic response to suicide, he was rated as relatively more likely to make new friends and less likely to want to die. These high school students saw themselves as immune to suicidal contagion from a written report, but thought that others might be vulnerable if people were sympathetic.     

Women's reactions to discrimination from members of the same or opposite sex

The effects upon women's self-evaluations of experiencing varying severity of failure in interpersonal competition against male vs. female opponents were explored. The results supported the hypothesis that self-esteem in women is more vulnerable to interpersonal rejection from men as opposed to other women. Specifically, subjects reported lower self-esteem when severe failure was due to the actions of alleged, male opponents rather than female ones. Also, severe failure elicited less favorable self-evaluations than mild failure only when the female subjects confronted male opponents. Finally, contrary to a defensive self-presentation hypothesis, subjects did not respond to discrimination from men by presenting themselves as being discrepant from the stereotype of women. Instead, subjects who interpreted their failure as reflecting prejudice on the part of men evaluated themselves more favorably on positive traits underlying the female stereotype.     

Evaluations of older and younger adult speakers: influence of communication effectiveness and noise

University students (N = 96) performed 3 communication tasks presented to them either by young men (mean age = 26 years) or by older men (mean age = 77 years). In counterbalanced order, students heard speakers in 3 message conditions (effective, ineffective, and noise). The messages of older men and the older men themselves were evaluated less positively than were younger men. In line with the hypothesis of age-biased behavioral interpretation, older adults speaking effectively were not accorded the same evaluative benefits over their less effective guises, especially on competence ratings, as were younger speakers. Furthermore, the noise condition was predictably more detrimental to ratings of the older speakers, who were more vulnerable to generalized negative affect.     

Method choice, intent, and gender in completed suicide

Women who commit suicide use less violent methods, such as drugs and carbon monoxide poisoning, than do men, who more often use violent methods such as guns and hanging. Theories that attempt to explain this finding focus on gender differences in suicidal intent, socialization, emotions, interpersonal relationships, orientation and access to methods, and neurobiological factors. Data from a psychological autopsy study were used to test the theory that women who commit suicide use less violent means because they are less intent on dying. Although women were significantly less likely to use a violent method than men, there was no difference in the lethality of their suicidal intent.     

A History of Physician Suicide in America

Over the course of the last century, physicians have written a number of articles about suicide among their own. These articles reveal how physicians have fundamentally conceived of themselves, how they have addressed vulnerability among their own, and how their self-identification has changed over time, due, in part, to larger historical changes in the profession, psychiatry, and suicidology. The suicidal physician of the Golden Age (1900–1970), an expendable deviant, represents the antithesis of that era’s image of strength and invincibility. In contrast, the suicidal physician of the modern era (1970 onwards), a vulnerable human being deserving of support, reflects that era’s frustration with bearing these unattainable ideals and its growing emphasis on physician health and well-being. Despite this key transition, specifically the acknowledgment of physicians’ limitations, more recent articles about physician suicide indicate that Golden Age values have endured. These persistent emphases on perfection and discomfort with vulnerability have hindered a comprehensive consideration of physician suicide, despite one hundred years of dialogue in the medical literature.     

Suicide ideation and attempts in Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites: demographic and psychiatric disorder issues

This study examined the lifetime prevalence of suicide ideation and attempts in a community sample of 1,425 Hispanics and 1,309 non-Hispanic whites. The relationship between psychiatric disorder (as assessed by the Diagnostic Interview Schedule, or DIS) and suicide ideation and attempts was also examined. Fewer Hispanics reported suicide ideation (8.8% vs. 18.9%; p less than .001) and suicide attempts (3.2% vs. 5.1%; p less than .001) than non-Hispanic whites. More women of both ethnic groups reported suicide attempts than men of either ethnic group (p less than .001). Disrupted marital bonds were typically associated with higher rates of ideation and attempts. Individuals with any DIS diagnosis were more than four times as likely to think about killing themselves (p less than .01) and more than seven times as likely to attempt suicide (p less than .01) as those without a psychiatric disorder.     

Cognitive and Interpersonal Vulnerability to Suicidal Ideation: A Weakest Link Approach

In contrast with traditional models of risk for suicidal ideation that combine multiple vulnerability components into one composite measure, weakest link perspectives posit that individuals are as vulnerable as their most vulnerable component (or “weakest link”). Such a perspective has been applied to depression, but has not been evaluated with respect to suicidal ideation. Thus, the goal of the present study was to apply a weakest link perspective to the study of suicidal ideation. We hypothesized that an individual’s “weakest link” among vulnerability components from the hopelessness theory (HT) and interpersonal psychological theory of suicide (IPTS) would interact with high levels of stress to predict increases in suicidal ideation over a 6-week period better than the traditional conceptualizations of HT or IPTS. Participants were 171 college students who completed measures of cognitive vulnerability, stress, and suicidal ideation twice over a period of 6 weeks. Bayesian regression analyses supported our hypotheses. The data fit the weakest link model using HT and IPTS components better than traditional conceptualizations of HT and IPTS. This study implies that weakest link models from depression may be useful in understanding which individuals are most vulnerable to experiencing suicidal ideation in the context of stress.     

Methods of Suicide Among Cancer Patients: A Nationwide Population‐Based Study

A 3‐year nationwide population‐based data set was used to explore methods of suicide (violent vs. nonviolent) and possible contributing factors among cancer patients in Taiwan. A total of 1,065 cancer inpatients who committed suicide were included as our study sample. The regression shows that those who had genitourinary cancer were 0.55 times (p = 0.047) less likely to use violent methods to commit suicide than those who had respiratory cancer. Among those who committed suicide out of town, the odds of using violent methods were 1.39 (p = 0.015) of their counterparts who had committed suicide in their hometowns. Those who had income between NT$15,841～NT$25,000 were 0.70 (p = 0.042) times less likely to use violent methods to commit suicide than those who had no income.     

Real-World Knowledge Facilitates Interpretation of Paintings by Naive Art Observers

It is often assumed that women kill themselves because of love and men because of achievement problems. The authors evaluated the suicide notes of 56 U.S. adult women and men with regard to love and achievement motives. Love themes were significantly more common than achievement themes, independent of sex and age. This suggests that, at least for U.S. adults who leave suicide notes, relationship concerns may be a dominant component of the motivation for suicide.     

Love and achievement motives in women's and men's suicide notes

It is often assumed that women kill themselves because of love and men because of achievement problems. The authors evaluated the suicide notes of 56 U.S. adult women and men with regard to love and achievement motives. Love themes were significantly more common than achievement themes, independent of sex and age. This suggests that, at least for U.S. adults who leave suicide notes, relationship concerns may be a dominant component of the motivation for suicide.     

Familicide: The killing of spouse and children

A familicide is a multiple-victim homicide incident in which the killer's spouse and one or more children are slain. National archives of Canadian and British homicides, containing 109 familicide incidents, permit some elucidation of the characteristic and epidemiology of this crime. Familicides were almost exclusively perpetrated by men, unlike other spouse-killings and other filicides. Half the familicidal men killed themselves as well, a much higher rate of suicide than among other uxoricidal or filicidal men. De facto unions were overrepresented, compared to their prevalence in the populations-at-large, but to a much lesser extent in familicides than in other uxoricides. Stepchildren were overrepresented as familicide victims, compared to their numbers in the populations-at-large, but to a much lesser extent than in other filicides; unlike killers of their genetic offspring, men who killed their stepchildren were rarely suicidal. An initial binary categorization of familicides as accusatory versus despondent is tentatively proposed. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Heavy metal music and adolescent suicidality: an empirical investigation.

This study investigated the relationship between preference for heavy metal music and vulnerability to suicide among 121 high school students. Heavy metal fans had less strong reasons for living (especially male fans) and had more thoughts of suicide (especially female fans). For a large majority, listening to music (all types) had a positive effect on mood. Overall, the results indicate that preference for heavy metal music among adolescents may be a "red flag" for increased suicidal vulnerability, but also suggest that the source of the problem may lie more in personal and familial characteristics than in any direct effects of the music. Implications for intervention and for future research are discussed.     

Familial risk of early suicide: variations by age and sex of children and parents

To determine familial risk of early suicide, data on cause of death of all Dutch residents aged 20-55 years who died between 1995 and 2001 were linked to data of their parents. Men whose father died by suicide had a higher odds of suicide themselves, relative to men whose father died of other causes (Odds Ratio (OR): 2.5; 95% confidence interval: 1.8-3.6). This effect was slightly stronger in the case of mother's suicide (OR: 3.4; 2.3-5.0). The same effect was observed for women, for suicide by father (OR: 2.2; 1.3-3.7) and mother (OR: 4.6; 2.6-8.0). The odds of suicide increased with decreasing age at death of parent. Parental suicide is predictive for offspring suicide. Our data suggest that the predictive value is higher in case the mother died by suicide, particularly if the mother died by suicide at a young age.     

Signaling threat: how situational cues affect women in math, science, and engineering settings

This study examined the cues hypothesis, which holds that situational cues, such as a setting's features and organization, can make potential targets vulnerable to social identity threat. Objective and subjective measures of identity threat were collected from male and female math, science, and engineering (MSE) majors who watched an MSE conference video depicting either an unbalanced ratio of men to women or a balanced ratio. Women who viewed the unbalanced video exhibited more cognitive and physiological vigilance, and reported a lower sense of belonging and less desire to participate in the conference, than did women who viewed the gender-balanced video. Men were unaffected by this situational cue. The implications for understanding vulnerability to social identity threat, particularly among women in MSE settings, are discussed.     

The prevalence of suicidal behaviors, attitudes and associated social experiences in an urban population

The development of an epidemiological study of mental health, social background factors, suicidal behaviors (suicidal ideas, deliberate self-harm, and attempted suicide), values concerning suicide, and experience of suicide in others is described. 679 adult respondents in a stratified random sample of residents of a large Canadian city were interviewed. Results indicate a more accepting attitude to suicide than reported in previous studies; considerable experience of suicide in others; and a much higher rate of suicidal ideas and action than has been reported in previous work. Thirteen percent of the sample had made plans for suicide in their lifetime, 6% had deliberately harmed themselves, and a further 4% had attempted suicide in their lifetime. In the past year, 4% had made plans for suicide, and 2% had deliberately harmed themselves or had attempted suicide.     

Me, us, or them: who is more conformist? Perception of conformity and political orientation

Research has shown that people perceive others as more vulnerable than themselves to media communication, and their political out-group as more vulnerable than their political in-group. In the present study, the authors predicted that the same two biases would appear with respect to another kind of influence--conformity--but that participants' judgments would display a different pattern according to their political orientations. Right-wing and left-wing university students were asked to evaluate conformity and to estimate how conformist they, their political in-group, their political out-group, and other groups are. As hypothesized, right-wingers expressed more ambivalence toward conformity and viewed it less negatively than did left-wingers. Political orientation had no impact on the discrepancy between self and others, but it did moderate the in-group-out-group discrepancy.     

Suicide ideation: its relation to depression, suicide and suicide attempt

A random sample of 3,935 adults from a general population were interviewed and asked to report how often they had thoughts of suicide as well as their opinion on the frequency of suicide ideation in others. Depression was found to be related to the respondent's reports of his/her own suicidal thoughts and to reports of frequent suicide ideation in others. A total of 5.4 percent of the respondents reported some degree of suicide ideation in the previous month and 9.1 percent reported that others think about suicide once a month or more. When the demographic characteristics of those who report suicide ideation in themselves or others were compared to those of suicide attempters and committers, some consistencies were found, suggesting that such questions may be useful in identifying those "at risk." Nevertheless, sufficient discrepancies were found which suggest that there may be a number of factors which increase or decrease the likelihood that someone with thoughts of suicide will attempt or commit suicide. Follow-up studies are necessary to uncover such factors and the degrees to which they influence the occurrence of suicide.