Social Stressors

As the rate of suicides increases in our nation, it has risen consistently with white males leading the way, as shown in figures 1 and 2. There are many theories behind what is driving this, however there are no hard facts behind any of these theories and there is still no concrete reason why white males are more prone to commit suicide.

“Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” - Phil Donahue. As a complex, tragic public health issue, suicide occurs in men significantly more often than in women. Suicide is simply defined as the act of intentionally ending one’s own life, however, the factors that play into a person making that decision are anything but simple. The most evident and severe effect of suicide is the loss of a valuable, meaningful human life. According to Harvard School of Public Health (n.d.), suicide affects parents, children, siblings, friends, lovers, and spouses; the loss to society is psychological, spiritual, and financial. People who lose a loved one to suicide often experience devastating effects and deal with a complex grief. These

Every 7 in 10 suicides are from white males and they are mostly men who are middle aged (Suicide Statistics, 2016). A common trend sn high death rate for suicide is that the men lack higher education past high school. Those who do not have higher education could have problems with seeking higher paying jobs which is causing stress and leading to factors for the causes of suicide. People who are not educated are struggling to make ends meet and while the cost of living continues to rise the minimum wage is

However, research has shown that men are less likely than women to seek-help for mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, mood disorders and emotional difficulties (Padesky&Hammen, 1981; Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007). The Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2007 has reported that “at some point in their lives one in five men experience anxiety and one in eight will have depression, whereas for women one

The third key idea is the gender gap. The text defines the gender gap of suicide by explaining that even though women have a higher rate of suicide attempts, men have a higher rate of suicidal deaths. This term was well defined in the article and the information given with it was presented substantially. The authors put together convincing statistics, although one source that was associated with multiple statistics was from 1997, which brings to question the validity of those statistics in today’s rapidly- changing society; almost 20 years later.

As one may expect, suicide is a huge problem in this country. Many people are trainied to be sucide bombers. However, there are those that commit suicide for other reasons such as not being able to take their way of living anymore, some women take their own lives due to not being able to handle being married to abusive drug addicted husbands. Men take their own lives simply due to not wanting to go on anymore.

As part of my research that I conducted, I found out that there were higher rates in female suicide rates compared to male suicide rates. Research has proved this through the Office for National Statistics report by the following statistic; Men aged between 45 and 59 had a higher suicide rate causing more deaths than women in 2014. https://www.ons.gov.uk/. This was men’s suicide rates causing 23.9 deaths per 100000 whereas women’s suicide rates causing 7.3 deaths per 100000. https://www.ons.gov.uk/. The reason for which males had higher suicide rates compared to female suicide rates may be that men may be less likely to seek help and request support. Typically, women are more likely to seek medical advice than men when they are unwell. This may be true for mental health services as well. A man may be less likely to express his emotions due to it not being

According to Daniel (2007), “Suicide is the third leading cause of death in U.S. state and federal prisons, exceeded only by natural causes and AIDS” (p. 409). However, in jails this is not the case. Figure 6 looks at mortality rates within the jail population from another report by the BJS. According to Noonan, Rohloff, and Ginder (2015), “Suicide has been the leading cause of death in jails every year since 2000. In 2013, a third (34%) of jail inmate deaths were due to suicide” (p. 1). This is a 9 percent increase just from 2012. 60 percent of these suicides were inmates between the ages of 25 and 44 (Noonan et al., 2015, p. 3). Between 2000 and 2013, the mortality rate for suicide among male inmates was 1.5 times the rate for female inmates (Noonan et al., 2015, p. 3). So even though female inmates are more likely to be mentally ill than male inmates, male inmates are more likely to commit suicide because of mental illness. Mental illness is an obvious risk factor for suicide. Incarceration worsens mental disorders which increases the chance of suicide among inmates.

The research finds that possibly due to having a larger family and therefore having a larger support network, that African Americans and Hispanics have lower suicide rates when compared to Caucasian Americans (Balis & Postolache, 2008; U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). Statistics also show that suicide has recently risen among African American males as the numbers that exist there are approaching that of Caucasian American males (Balis & Postolache, 2008; U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). What’s even more shocking in regards to nationality is that research has found that Native American adolescents tend to commit suicide at rates 2 to 6 times national averages (Balis & Postolache, 2008; U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). When looking at these statistics, it can be reasonably assumed that many of the major disruptions which can occur during adolescence such as substance abuse, early parenthood, failure in regards to school, and depression probably underlie these trends. The research also shows that the sexual orientation of an individual can also play a large role in adolescent suicide rates. To elaborate on the research, statistics show that gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents are all at high risk of suicide as these groups tend to attempt suicide three times as often when compared to other adolescents (D’Augelli et al., 2005). The research also tells us that amongst those who

Criminal justice system has also been linked as a risk factor for suicide. Individuals under criminal justice supervision in the community (e.g., parole, probation) carry an odds ratio for suicide of 1.82 in men and 3.03 in women (Webb et al., 2011). The effects are not just associated with individuals incarcerated but also individuals who have any association with the system. In another study researchers examined the gender and racial differences in suicide attempters and ideators in a high-risk community corrections population (Mccullumsmith et al., 2003). Participants who reported attempting suicide were more likely to be White, female, previously married, have less than a high school education, and a higher chance of living in a shelter

Suicide rates differ between boys and girls. Girls think about and attempt suicide about twice as often as boys,

With the widening gap between the North and South of England and poverty rates being at an all-time high, there are many theories and explanations as to why individuals choose to commit suicide. There are some ideas that people commit suicide due to poverty and being socially and economically disadvantaged there are others that believe that having no education leads to higher levels of suicide. However critics would argue that these explanations do not take into account personal circumstances of the individual. However statistically suicide rates are higher in areas of higher levels of poverty.

Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2001) describes how power differentials, chronic strains and stressors impact a disparity in the rate of depression between males and females. Stressful life events such as sexual assault more commonly occur in females compared to males. Women are often victims of these events which causes them to feel helpless and increases their stress. There is a correlation between sexual assault and depression where 35% of the gender difference in depression could be accounted for by the difference in assault figures for males and females. Females also endure more chronic strains than their male counterpart’s examples of these are harassment and a lack of respect. This stress is a result of their social status and roles in society.

They usually get depressed, frustrated and sometime they may get hopeless, therefore, they commonly turn to drugs, alcohol and most seriously they become suicidal. It is believed that most men committed suicide because of divorce, drugs and alcohol and unemployment (Dacey, 2008). Moreover, whenever there is only one person working in the family, it can cause stress on the family living on one

For example, in Western societies, suicide is 3 times more prevalent in urban than in rural areas2, 3-5 times more prevalent in males than in females when measured through completion rates (though attempt rates are higher among females)3, and 9 times more often associated with mental illness than not.1 The explanations for these trends draw on psychological and sociological theories: it has been hypothesized that men are more likely than women to use lethal means of attempting suicide, and that the economic hardship, unemployment, and social disintegration that afflict city life make suicide a greater problem in urban than in rural areas.4 In China, however, the trends regarding gender, urban status, and mental health are surprisingly reversed: rural suicides outnumber urban suicides by a 3:1 ratio, female suicides outnumber male suicides by a 3:1 ratio, and as few as 40% of suicides are accompanied by mental illness.5