The "dark side" of the strength of weak ties: the diffusion of suicidal thoughts

Social Support as Assemblage at the Public Library: How an Organization of Human and More-Than-Human Weak Ties Impacts Health

This study responds to a dual emphasis within social support literature on computer-mediated-communication and logocentric messaging by focusing on contextual, in-person social support. Specifically, this study examines how social support is provided within an organization of weak ties, namely a rural library system located in Central Appalachia. The study uses qualitative and postqualitative analysis to consider how both human and more-than-human kinds together confer support toward the goal of improving health outcomes. Ultimately, it finds that these agents variously complement and contradict each other within a posthuman assemblage of social support. It also identifies invitational social support, a communication strategy for destigmatizing social support, and non-normative social support, a counterintuitive form of support that involves the disruption of normative approaches. The study concludes with a call for the development of an ecological model of social support.

Do Gun-Purchase Waiting Periods Save Lives?

We study the impact of gun-purchase waiting periods on suicide rates using county-level mortality data from 1991-2019. We find that waiting periods are associated with a reduction in both firearm and overall suicide rates of approximately 5% and 2%, respectively. Novelly, we find that counties that are within 50 miles from a state without a waiting period experience no statistically significant reduction in suicides. Our findings reveal that the decrease in suicides under a waiting period is driven by counties that are more than 50 miles from a non-restricted neighboring state.

Strong Fears, Weak Ties, and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: Medical Inquiries About Injury, Wound, and Scar Care from a Self-Harm Subreddit

Through the theoretical lens of the Strength of Weak Ties Theory, this study examined medical advice sought within a self-harm subreddit. Using a social constructionist epistemology and employing a Reflexive Thematic Analysis, we explored 596 inquiries for medical advice about nonsuicidal self-injury-related injuries, wounds, and scar care. Five overarching themes were identified: (a) pleading for wound care help from weak-ties, (b) expressing fear of hospitalization deterring requests to strong-ties, (c) seeking validation for harm-reduction from weak-ties (d) asking weak-ties how to navigate unexpected outcomes, and (e) requesting help from weak-ties to conceal wounds, injuries, and scars from strong-ties. Our findings align with previous research by describing Reddit as a valuable resource when strong-ties are inaccessible or unapproachable. They extend the existing literature by highlighting users' frequently asserted preference for online medical inquiries due to stigma and involuntary hospitalization fears often associated with medical and mental health providers. We discuss the need for injury and wound care best practices in accessible spaces while offering theoretical and practical implications for key stakeholders. Given the frequent spread of mis/disinformation on user-generated social networks, we also emphasize the importance of users' verifying the accuracy of medical advice received before implementing suggestions received online from anonymous weak ties connections. Ultimately, this study highlights the nuances between online medical inquiries, social support, and barriers to accessible and empathetic healthcare for individuals engaging in nonsuicidal self-injury.

Friendships and peer relationships and self-harm ideation and behaviour among young people: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

Friendships and peer relationships have an important role in the experience of self-harm ideation and behaviour in young people, yet they typically remain overlooked. This systematic review and narrative synthesis explores the extant literature on this topic to identify important relationships between these constructs. We did a keyword search of peer-reviewed empirical articles relating to friendships and peer relationships and self-harm ideation and behaviour in young people (aged 11-25 years). We identified 90 articles with evidence primarily from adolescents aged 11-18 years, including mixed genders and a majority of White individuals. Findings highlight substantive relationships between the key constructs, showing that: characteristics of friends and peers, including their self-harm ideation and behaviour, relate to and predict ego self-harm ideation and behaviour; friends and peers are important sources of support; and evidence on causal mechanisms is scarce but highlights potential peer selection and influence processes. Studies of the friends and peers of young people with self-harm ideation and behaviour highlight that: friends' attitudes to self-harm and suicide influence their responses to peers with self-harm ideation and behaviour; and friends who are bereaved and friend supporters experience negative outcomes such as symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and grief, alongside difficult emotions. Despite substantial heterogeneity across samples, study designs, and definition or measurement of the primary constructs, this work presents an initial step in organising a complex literature on a crucially important topic, which can help to inform future research and evidence-based interventions.

Why is Korean girls' suicidal ideation rate higher than boys' rate? The role of gender heterogeneity in peer groups

Girls typically show much lower suicide rates than boys in most OECD countries. However, in South Korea, the suicide rate of girls almost reaches that of boys. Moreover, Korean girls' suicide rate is remarkable even among other advanced countries. One potential approach to explaining Korean girls' relatively high suicide rate is to investigate how their peer groups affect suicidal ideation, but this approach has rarely been explored in Korean adolescents. We tested how the gender heterogeneity of peer groups is associated with suicidal ideation by analyzing 2,990 adolescents from the 2018 Korean Children and Youth Well-Being Index Survey. For the analysis, logistic regression models with survey weights were used. The analysis revealed that adolescents with different-gender friends were associated with a higher likelihood of suicidal ideation than those with exclusively same-gender friends when adjusting for covariates. In addition, an analysis stratified by gender found that this association was significant only among girls. Furthermore, the protective power of having a mentor against suicidal ideation was significantly lower in girls with male and female friends than in girls with only female friends. The findings suggest a less protective role of different-gender peer groups for suicidal ideation among girls. During adolescent suicidality consultations, school counselors and practitioners should pay attention to the characteristics of adolescents' peers, particularly their gender.

Understanding suicide clusters through exploring self-harm: Semi-structured interviews with individuals presenting with near-fatal self-harm during a suicide cluster

There was a highly publicised cluster of at least ten suicides in South Wales, United Kingdom, in 2007-2008. We carried out a qualitative descriptive study using cross-case thematic analysis to investigate the experiences and narratives of eight individuals who lived in the area where the cluster occurred and who survived an episode of near-fatal self-harm at the time of the cluster. Interviews were conducted from 01.01.2015 to 31.12.2015. All interviewees denied that the other deaths in the area had affected their own suicidal behaviour. However, in other sections of the interviews they spoke about the cluster contributing to difficulties they were experiencing at the time, including damage to social relationships, feelings of loss and being out of control. When asked about support, the interviewees emphasized the importance of counselling, which they would have found helpful but in most cases did not receive, even in the case of close contacts of individuals who had died. The findings suggest that effective prevention messaging must be subtle, since those affected may not be explicitly aware of or acknowledge the imitative aspects of their behaviour. This could be related to stigma attached to suicidal behaviour in a cluster context. Lessons for prevention include changing the message from asking if people 'have been affected by' the suicide deaths to emphasising the preventability of suicide, and directly reaching out to individuals rather than relying on people to come forward.

Social Cost and Health: The Downside of Social Relationships and Social Networks

The research tradition on social relationships, social networks, and health dates back to the beginning of sociology. As exemplified in the classic work of Durkheim, Simmel, and Tönnies, social relationships and social networks play a double-edged-protective and detrimental-role for health. However, this double-edged role has been given unbalanced attention. In comparison to the salubrious role, the deleterious role has received less scrutiny and needs a focused review and conceptual integration. This article selectively reviews the post-2000 studies that demonstrate the harmful physical and mental health consequences of social relationships (intimate relationships and parenthood) and social networks. It uses a parsimonious three-category typology-structural forms, structural composition, and contents-to categorize relationship and network properties and proposes the social cost model, in contrast to the social resource model, to synthesize and integrate the adverse aspects of these properties. It concludes with future research directions.

When Friends Bring You Down: Peer Stress Proliferation and Suicidality

Peers play a significant role in adolescent mental well-being and suicidality. While social integration among peers is often assumed to benefit mental health, a growing literature recognizes that peer relationships can increase suicidality. Conceptualizing friends' disclosure of mental distress as a stressor on teens' own mental health clarifies how distressed peers relate to suicidal ideation given integration in key social contexts, such as school. This study applies the stress process to examine peer depression and self-harm disclosure as stressors predicting teens' suicidal ideation. Using cross-sectional data from an understudied context, youth in Saudi Arabia (n = 545, 50% female, mean age = 16.8), models find friends' disclosure of depression and self-harm are associated with adolescents' higher suicidal ideation net of their own depression. Teens who are more attached to school see higher risk of suicidality from friends' depression, while friends' self-harm predicts higher suicidality overall. Results challenge assumptions of uniformly beneficial social integration by indicating that friends' mental distress, particularly self-harm, can act as a stressor increasing youth suicidality.

The Social Roots of Suicide: Theorizing How the External Social World Matters to Suicide and Suicide Prevention

The past 20 years have seen dramatic rises in suicide rates in the United States and other countries around the world. These trends have been identified as a public health crisis in urgent need of new solutions and have spurred significant research efforts to improve our understanding of suicide and strategies to prevent it. Unfortunately, despite making significant contributions to the founding of suicidology - through Emile Durkheim's classic Suicide (1897/1951) - sociology's role has been less prominent in contemporary efforts to address these tragic trends, though as we will show, sociological theories offer great promise for advancing our understanding of suicide and improving the efficacy of suicide prevention. Here, we review sociological theory and empirical research on suicide. We begin where all sociologists must: with Durkheim. However, we offer a more comprehensive understanding of Durkheim's insights into suicide than the prior reviews provided by those in other disciplines. In so doing, we reveal the nuance and richness of Durkheim's insights that have been largely lost in modern suicidology, despite being foundational to all sociological theories of suicide - even those that have moved beyond his model. We proceed to discuss broadly acknowledged limitations to Durkheim's theory of suicide and review how more recent theoretical efforts have not only addressed those concerns, but have done so by bringing a larger swatch of sociology's theoretical and empirical toolkit to bare on suicide. Specifically, we review how recent sociological theories of suicide have incorporated insights from social network theories, cultural sociology, sociology of emotions, and sociological social psychology to better theorize how the external social world matters to individual psychological pain and suffering. We conclude by making explicit bridges between sociological and psychological theories of suicide; by noting important limitations in knowledge about suicide - particularly regarding the roles of organizations, inequality, and intersectionality in suicide - that sociology is well situated to help address.

Toward a robust science of suicide: Epistemological, theoretical, and methodological considerations in advancing suicidology

Suicidology is at a crossroads, the crux of which came into plain view recently when Hjelmeland/Knizek's critique of mainstream suicidology was followed by two ardent essays defending suicidology as it currently exists. We stake out a middle-way approach leveraging sociology's unique disciplinary perspective to bridge the two sides to construct a robust transdisciplinary toolbox that helps suicidology advance as science and improve how we study suicide and, therefore, what we know. The essay first examines the underlying structural and cultural reasons for the talking past each other, before turning towards our own understanding of science, methods, and the study of suicide.

What does it mean to be exposed to suicide?: Suicide exposure, suicide risk, and the importance of meaning-making

Current research indicates that exposure to suicide is a risk factor for suicidality; however, we know little about the mechanisms through which exposure confers this risk. In this study, we address this gap by examining the role of meaning-making after a suicide death in moderating individual's vulnerability to suicide. We draw on interview data with suicide bereaved individuals in the USA (N = 48), the majority of whom engaged in intense meaning-making processes after their loss. Many reported an increased awareness of suicide as a 'something that actually happens,' a realization that impacted their lives and relationships with others (N = 37). For 7 participants, all women, their loss appeared to trigger increased suicidality, as they not only felt overwhelmed by grief, but also came to see suicide as something they, too, could do. However, for 19 participants, witnessing the profound impact of suicide on others made them feel that suicide was something they could never do. Thus, in our data, how exposure impacted vulnerability was tied to how individuals made sense of and experienced their loss. For some, suicide was re-framed as more of an option, while for others it was re-framed as not just the killing-of-oneself, but as the harming-of-others through grief and trauma, which in turn diminished their view of suicide's acceptability. Collectively, our findings suggest that exposure to suicide itself is not inherently risky, though it may be inherently distressing; instead, whether it results in increased vulnerability depends on the meaning an individual makes of the experience and likely the context surrounding the death. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of suicide contagion, suicide itself, and suicide prevention.

Friend or frenemy? Experiential homophily and educational track attrition among premedical students

Support from experientially similar others-individuals who have been through the same life transition or faced a similar set of stressful circumstances-has been shown to be effective for coping with issues ranging from chronic illness to bereavement. Less research has examined how networks comprised of experientially similar others may shape academic outcomes. Using longitudinal egocentric network data collected from early career premedical students at a large research university (n = 268), results indicate that greater experiential homophily in premeds' networks are associated with a lower likelihood of departing from the premedical career track at the end of the academic year. Interview data (n = 39) highlight three support functions provided by premedical peers that help to explain this relationship: 1) concrete task assistance with assignments and studying, 2) empathic understanding and emotional support, and 3) advice and reassurance from more advanced peers. Results hint at the potential utility of peer support for the retention of students at-risk of straying from the premedical career track, and have implications for other fields of study.

Exposure to Suicide in High Schools: Impact on Serious Suicidal Ideation/Behavior, Depression, Maladaptive Coping Strategies, and Attitudes toward Help-Seeking

Adolescents' exposure to a peer's suicide has been found to be associated with, as well as to predict, suicidal ideation and behavior. Although postvention efforts tend to be school-based, little is known about the impact of a schoolmate's suicide on the school's student population overall. The present study seeks to determine whether there is excess psychological morbidity among students in a school where a schoolmate has died by suicide, and whether students' attitudes about coping and help-seeking strategies are more or less problematic in such schools. Students in twelve high schools in Suffolk and Westchester counties in New York State-2865 students at six schools where a student had died by suicide within the past six months, and 2419 students at six schools where no suicide had occurred within the current students' tenure-completed an assessment of their suicidal ideation and behavior, depressive symptoms, coping and help-seeking attitudes, stressful life events, and friendship with suicide decedent (if applicable). No excess morbidity (i.e., serious suicidal ideation/behavior and depression) was evident among the general student population after a schoolmate's death by suicide; however, the risk of serious suicidal ideation/behavior was elevated among students at exposed schools who had concomitant negative life events. There was a significant relationship between friendship with the decedent and morbidity, in that students who were friends, but not close friends, of the decedents had the greatest odds of serious suicidal ideation/behavior. Overall, students in exposed schools had more adaptive attitudes toward help-seeking; but this was not true of the decedents' friends or students with concomitant negative life events. The implications of the findings for postvention strategies are discussed.

Attitudes to suicide following the suicide of a friend or relative: a qualitative study of the views of 429 young bereaved adults in the UK

BACKGROUND

People bereaved by suicide are at increased risk of suicide attempt and suicide, but explanations for these associations remain theoretical. It is possible that the experience of suicide bereavement modifies personal attitudes towards suicide, but the nature of these changes remains unexplored. There is a need to understand personal attitudes to suicide following suicide bereavement, as this may inform the development of suicide prevention interventions. Our aim was to explore the attitudes of young adults bereaved by suicide towards their own likelihood of dying by suicide.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional study of staff and students aged 18-40 at 37 United Kingdom (UK) higher educational institutions in 2010. Ethical approval was granted by the UCL Research Ethics Committee. Qualitative responses to a question probing attitudes to own suicide were provided by 429 respondents who had experienced bereavement by the suicide of a close contact. We identified key themes in this dataset using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Analysis identified four main themes: suicide as a more tangible option (whether feared or not); identification with the deceased and awareness of shared vulnerabilities to suicide; personal determination to avoid suicide; and beliefs regarding safeguards against suicide. These themes reflected a broad split in participants' views regarding own likelihood of dying by suicide, influenced by the degree to which own suicide was feared and the extent to which they felt in control of determining a suicide death. Whilst the majority described an aversion to the idea of attempting suicide themselves, largely through an awareness of the impact on others, a minority described their experiences as having normalised suicide as a personal option.

CONCLUSIONS

The views of a sample of UK-based adults bereaved by suicide suggest that exposure to the suicide of a close friend or relative can influence attitudes to suicide in ways that could influence own risk of suicide attempt. The normalising attitudes to suicide observed in a minority of respondents could contribute to the observed association between suicide bereavement and suicide attempt.

Mental Health Symptomatology and Exposure to Non-Fatal Suicidal Behavior: Factors That Predict Vulnerability and Resilience Among College Students

Despite efforts to identify risk factors following exposure to completed suicide, research has paid less attention to the associations between exposure to non-fatal suicide behavior (NFSB) and mental health symptomatology-factors that may underlie one's susceptibility to future suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This study examined differences in mental health symptomatology among 192 college students exposed to NFSB and 202 exposed to general stressors. Results indicated that students exposed to NFSB had significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety compared to those exposed to a variety of other stressors but not NFSB. Furthermore, among those exposed, a number of risk and protective factors emerged in relation to psychological sequelae, such as emotional stability, social support, and the quality of the relationship between the exposed and suicidal individual. These findings highlight the importance of enhancing provisions of support for those exposed to NFSB.

Spatiotemporal study of elderly suicide in Korea by age cohort

OBJECTIVES

This study analyzed the spatiotemporal pattern and spatial diffusion of elderly suicide by age cohort, in Korea.

STUDY DESIGN

The research investigated the elderly suicide rates of the 232 municipal units in South Korea between 2001 and 2011.

METHODS

The Gi* score, which is a spatially weighted indicator of area attributes, was used to identify hot spots and the spatiotemporal pattern of elderly suicide in the nation during the last 10 years. The spatial Markov matrix and spatial dynamic panel data model were employed to identify and estimate the diffusion effect.

RESULTS

The suicide rate among elderly individuals 75 years and older was substantially higher than the rate for those between 65 and 74 years of age; however, the spatial patterns of the suicide clusters were similar between the two groups. From 2001 to 2011, the spatial distribution of elderly suicide hot spots differed each year. For both age cohorts, elderly suicide hot spots developed around the north area of South Korea in 2001 and moved to the mid-east area and the mid-western coastal area over 10 years. The spatial Markov matrix indicates that the change in the suicide rate of one area was affected by the suicide rates of neighbouring areas from the previous year, which suggests that suicide increase in one area inflates a neighbouring area's suicide rate over time. Using a spatial dynamic panel data model, elderly suicide diffusion effects were found to be statistically significant for both age cohorts even after economic and demographic indicators and a time variable are included. For individuals 75 years and older, the diffusion effect appeared to be larger.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates that elderly suicide can spread spatially over time in both age cohorts. Thus, it is necessary to design a place-based and age-differentiated intervention policy that precisely considers the spatial diffusion of elderly suicide.

Dying online: live broadcasts of Chinese emerging adult suicides and crisis response behaviors

BACKGROUND

Social media and online environments are becoming increasingly popular and integral to modern lives. The online presentation of suicidal behaviors is an example of the importance of communication technologies, and the need for professionals to respond to a changing world. These types of behaviors, however, have rarely been scientifically analyzed. This study aimed to examine the behaviors of both suicide broadcasters and their audience, with attention on prevention/crisis opportunities.

METHODS

Multiple case studies were employed to explore live-broadcast suicide by Chinese emerging adults (aged 18-25 years). Six cases were selected (four males, two females; aged 19-24, M = 21.60, SD = 2.25), retrieved from 190 public documents (case range = 5 to 32; M = 11.50, SD = 10.37). A qualitative study based on grounded theory was adopted. Information on case background, stages, participants and their behaviors were collected.

RESULTS

(1) Five stages of blogcast suicide incidents were revealed, including: Signaling, Initial reactions, Live blogcast of suicide attempts, Crisis responses, and Final outcomes. (2) Common behavioral trends (e.g., comforting, verbal abuse) were identified from the blogcast participants (e.g., active audience, peers, parents and police). (3) Suicide blogcasters exhibited tendencies to communicated signs of pain and cries for help.

CONCLUSIONS

This multi-case study found live presentations of suicidal behaviors offered unique opportunities to respond to suicidal crises, and also to learn more about the relationships between suicidal people and potential help sources. Findings showed many audience members wanted to be helpful but lacked appropriate skills or knowledge. Others engaged in suicide cyberbullying. The social media is an environment in the making. This study revealed that increasing knowledge and skills for crisis response and suicide prevention is needed. Such efforts could lead to empowered netizens and a more hospitable online world.

Intermediate peer contexts and educational outcomes: Do the friends of students' friends matter?

Sociologists of education have long been interested in the effects of peer relations on educational outcomes. Recent theory and research on adolescence suggest that peers on the boundaries of students' friendship networks may play an important role in shaping behaviors and educational outcomes. In this study, we examine the importance of a key "intermediate peer context" for students' outcomes: the friends of a student's friends. Our findings indicate both friends' and friends' friends' characteristics independently predict students' college expectations and their risk of dropping out of high school (although only friends' characteristics predict GPA). Our models suggest the magnitude of students' friends-of-friends' characteristics are at least as large their friends' characteristics. Together, the association between the peer context and students outcomes is considerably larger when accounting for both the characteristics of students' friends and the friends of their friends.

Realizing the potential of mobile mental health: new methods for new data in psychiatry

Smartphones are now ubiquitous and can be harnessed to offer psychiatry a wealth of real-time data regarding patient behavior, self-reported symptoms, and even physiology. The data collected from smartphones meet the three criteria of big data: velocity, volume, and variety. Although these data have tremendous potential, transforming them into clinically valid and useful information requires using new tools and methods as a part of assessment in psychiatry. In this paper, we introduce and explore numerous analytical methods and tools from the computational and statistical sciences that appear readily applicable to psychiatric data collected using smartphones. By matching smartphone data with appropriate statistical methods, psychiatry can better realize the potential of mobile mental health and empower both patients and providers with novel clinical tools.

Can Social Ties be Harmful? Examining the Spread of Suicide in Early Adulthood

Durkheim posited that social relationships protect individuals against suicide; however, substantial research demonstrates that suicide can spread through the very ties Durkheim theorized as protective. With this study, we use Waves I, III, and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, to investigate whether young adults' suicide attempts and thoughts are in part products of exposure to suicidal behaviors via their social relationships. We find that young adults who have had family members or friends attempt suicide are more likely to report suicide ideation or even suicide attempts, over both the short and long run. This finding is robust to many important controls for risk and protective factors for suicide. Our findings have implications for the sociology of suicide, not the least of which, is that social ties have the power to harm in addition to the power to protect.

Suicidal disclosures among friends: using social network data to understand suicide contagion

A robust literature suggests that suicide is socially contagious; however, we know little about how and why suicide spreads. Using network data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examine the effects of alter's (1) disclosed and (2) undisclosed suicide attempts, (3) suicide ideation, and (4) emotional distress on ego's mental health one year later to gain insights into the emotional and cultural mechanisms that underlie suicide contagion. We find that when egos know about alter's suicide attempt, they report significantly higher levels of emotional distress and are more likely to report suicidality, net of extensive controls; however, alter's undisclosed suicide attempts and ideation have no significant effect on ego's mental health. Finally, we find evidence that emotional distress is contagious in adolescence, though it does not seem to promote suicidality. We discuss the implications of our findings for suicide contagion specifically and sociology more generally.

The diffusion of a new method of suicide: charcoal-burning suicide in Hong Kong and Taiwan

PURPOSE

In the late 1990s, an epidemic rise in suicides by carbon monoxide poisoning from burning barbecue charcoal began in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This study investigates the diffusion of this new method of suicide.

METHOD

Official mortality data for 1998-2010 in Taiwan and 1998-2009 in Hong Kong were collected; overall and method-specific suicide rates in different socio-demographic subgroups over the study period were compared. Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the socio-demographic risk factors for charcoal-burning vs. non-charcoal-burning suicide.

RESULTS

In Hong Kong, the incidence of charcoal-burning suicide increased steeply within 1 year of the first reported cases, but its use has declined from 24.2% of all suicides during the peak period (2002-2004) to 17.1% (2007-2009); in Taiwan, the pace of diffusion was slower in onset, but it remains a popular method accounting for 31.0% of all suicides in 2008-2010. The early adopters in both places tended to be young- and middle-aged men. As the epidemic progressed, the method has also been gradually adopted by older age groups and women, particularly in Taiwan, but in 2009/10, the method still accounted for <8% of suicides in those aged >60 years in both areas.

CONCLUSIONS

Common features of the epidemic in both places were the greater levels of early uptake by the young- and middle-aged males. The different course of the charcoal-burning suicide epidemic may reflect social, geographic and media reporting differences. Surveillance to identify the emergence of new suicide methods is crucial in suicide prevention.

Are Suicidal Behaviors Contagious in Adolescence?: Using Longitudinal Data to Examine Suicide Suggestion

Though Durkheim argued that strong social relationships protect individuals from suicide, we posit that these relationships have the potential to increase individuals' vulnerability when they expose them to suicidality. Using three waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we evaluate whether new suicidal thoughts and attempts are in part responses to exposure to the suicide attempts of role models, specifically friends and family. We find that the suicide attempts of role models do in fact trigger new suicidal thoughts and in some cases attempts, even after significant controls are introduced. Moreover, we find that these effects fade with time, that girls are more vulnerable to them than boys, and that the relationship to the role model-for teenagers at least-matters. Friends appear to be more salient role models for both boys and girls. Our findings suggest that exposure to suicidal behaviors in significant others may teach individuals new ways to deal with emotional distress, namely by becoming suicidal. This reinforces the idea that the structure - and content - of social networks conditions their role in preventing suicidality. Specifically, social ties can be conduits of not just social support, but also anti-social behaviors, like suicidality.

Korean Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey

This study investigated the association between in-school students’ part-time work and 1-year suicide attempts in Korea. The authors analyzed Korean Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance data (2008), which included 75 238 samples that represent Korean middle and high school students. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the association between part-time work and suicide attempt during the past 1 year, controlled by sociodemographic, school-related, lifestyle, and psychological factors. Among high school students, there was no association between part-time work and suicide attempts. However, part-time work was associated with suicide attempts significantly among middle school students (odds ratio = 1.59; 95% confidence interval = 1.37-1.83). Despite the limitation that details of the part-time work were not included in this study, it was found that middle school students’ part-time work may increase suicide attempts, and the circumstances of Korean adolescents’ employment, especially that of younger adolescents, would need to be reconsidered to prevent their suicide attempts.

Factors from Durkheim's family integration related to suicidal ideation among men with histories of child sexual abuse

Men who were sexually abused during childhood represent a highly stigmatized, marginalized population at risk for a variety of long-term mental health problems. Using the family integration dimension of Durkheim's theory of suicide, factors associated with suicidal ideation among a purposive sample of 487 men with histories of child sexual abuse were examined. Four variables--length of cohabitation, maternal support after disclosure, parental divorce, and older age--were negatively related to suicidal ideation. The analysis provides partial support for Durkheim's model. Implications for education, clinical practice, and future research are presented.

Suicide ideation of individuals in online social networks

Suicide explains the largest number of death tolls among Japanese adolescents in their twenties and thirties. Suicide is also a major cause of death for adolescents in many other countries. Although social isolation has been implicated to influence the tendency to suicidal behavior, the impact of social isolation on suicide in the context of explicit social networks of individuals is scarcely explored. To address this question, we examined a large data set obtained from a social networking service dominant in Japan. The social network is composed of a set of friendship ties between pairs of users created by mutual endorsement. We carried out the logistic regression to identify users’ characteristics, both related and unrelated to social networks, which contribute to suicide ideation. We defined suicide ideation of a user as the membership to at least one active user-defined community related to suicide. We found that the number of communities to which a user belongs to, the intransitivity (i.e., paucity of triangles including the user), and the fraction of suicidal neighbors in the social network, contributed the most to suicide ideation in this order. Other characteristics including the age and gender contributed little to suicide ideation. We also found qualitatively the same results for depressive symptoms.

DANGEROUS LIAISONS? DATING AND DRINKING DIFFUSION IN ADOLESCENT PEER NETWORKS

The onset and escalation of alcohol consumption and romantic relationships are hallmarks of adolescence, yet only recently have these domains jointly been the focus of sociological inquiry. We extend this literature by connecting alcohol use, dating and peers to understand the diffusion of drinking behavior in school-based friendship networks. Drawing on Granovetter's classic concept of weak ties, we argue that adolescent romantic partners are likely to be network bridges, or liaisons, connecting daters to new peer contexts which, in turn, promote changes in individual drinking behaviors and allow these behaviors to spread across peer networks. Using longitudinal data of 459 couples from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we estimate Actor-Partner Interdependence Models and identify the unique contributions of partners' drinking, friends' drinking, and friends-of-partners' drinking to daters' own future binge drinking and drinking frequency. Findings support the liaison hypothesis and suggest that friends-of-partners' drinking have net associations with adolescent drinking patterns. Moreover, the coefficient for friends-of-partners drinking is larger than the coefficient for one's own peers and generally immune to prior selection. Our findings suggest that romantic relationships are important mechanisms for understanding the diffusion of emergent problem behaviors in adolescent peer networks.