Marriage Prevents Suicide…
Masocco, M., Pompili, M., Vanacore, N., Innamorati, M., Lester, D., Girardi, P., Tatarelli, R., & Vichi, M. (2009). Completed Suicide and Marital Status According to the Italian Region of Origin Psychiatric Quarterly, 81 (1), 57-71 DOI: 10.1007/s11126-009-9118-2
‘Suicide prevention can be more effective when socio-cultural variables are taken in account. It is unlikely that a standard suicide prevention strategy will be successful if it lacks appropriate adaptation to the cultural background of the population to whom it is addressed. Italy is a country of great internal diversity, and variations in suicide rates are partially understandable by taking into account specific socio-cultural characteristics’ (Masocco et al. (2009), p.68).
Research by Masocco et al. (2009), has confirmed what we already knew: marriage is a protective factor for suicide. I would argue, for suicide in men. Marriage tends to be detrimental to women’s emotional health and well-being. Masocco et al. (2009), urge researchers to look deeper to try to understand why the suicide rates across Italy vary so much from region-to-region. Their conclusion, and one with which I concur, is that suicide is a ‘multifaceted phenomenon’ (p.58). Marriage might be a protective factor for some men as much as being unemployed can be a risk factor. We see that here in Australia, where there is well-established positive association between socio-economic status, gender (male), and suicide. The folly of much effort in the suicide prevention industry, however, is to assume that suicide is a universal phenomenon precipitated by a universal mental disorder (depression), and so strategies are homogenised and generalised. Such an approach also avoids what governments hate most: scrutiny of their policy failures. Australia’s economic boom has left behind, in some instances for decades now, many communities in our major cities and our rural, regional, and remote areas. In seeking to understand the specificity of suicidal ideation and actions, it will take much more than identifying those subtle characteristics. After all, singly and in combination, there are simply too many of them residing within what is, when it comes to suicide deaths, a statistically non-significant population. Only by addressing the social problems that lead to suicidal ideation (unemployment, poverty, hegemonic masculinity, etc.), might we expect to see a drop in the suicide rate. Alas, the suicide prevention industry remains fixated on the pointy end of how to save lives in that illusory crisis moment when conversely, the real task is not to stop people from dying but to enable them to live.
Misleading title. Should have clarified ‘Marriage for men prevents suicide.’ Or were all the researchers men?
The article title refers to ‘marital status’. The researchers (a team of men and women) found that across Italy, widowed men were five times more likely to commit suicide than married men. Never-married men were twice as likely to commit suicide. The difference in the suicide rate between divorced men (somewhat surprisingly) and married men was not significant. I say, ‘somewhat surprisingly’, because separation and divorce are key risk factors for male suicide. According to this study, at least, women too are offered some ‘protection’ by marriage, but the level of that protection is much less than it is for men.
The male suicide rate in Italy, as in all developed nations (except China), is exponentially higher than the female suicide rate.
Positive social support is negatively correlated with suicide and a boatload of risk factors for suicide. It shouldn’t be surprising that marriage is part of the social support equation. But correlation, here, is not causation. We might look at the reverse set of effects – i.e., do people who tend to be at higher risk for divorce also tend to have other characteristics that make them more likely to commit or attempt suicide? The answer, of course, is yes. More likely to be depressed, struggle with anger management, etc. More likely to lose job, give up friendships, isolate, etc. More likely to have negative spiritual outlook, more likely to have negative self-talk, etc. So, frankly, I think the approach taken by this author/researcher is just bunk. It’s not good science – at least, not as far as I can tell from the abstract/summary.
Yes, while the authors stress and show the huge regional variations in the suicide rate across Italy, conceding that we need to know a lot more about the discrete variables involved, there is always the risk when talking about suicide of lurching into simple cause, effect propositions. Here in Australia, as elsewhere, the big daddy of all those is that depression causes suicide. End of story. Every thought and action after that about suicide has to come back to the premise that depression causes suicide. Going against the grain, psychiatrist Stephen Rosenman once made the salient point that identifying the causes of suicide (the combination of risk factors present in any individual at any point in time) is like ‘trying to find a needle in a haystack’. The difference between ‘low’ risk and ‘high’ risk, he said, could happen in a moment, after a bottle of whisky. We need to look carefully at any possible correlation between suicide and any other factors (and any other factors and suicide). Further, the suicide prevention industry should stop peddling reductionist myths about suicide and accept the reality that suicide is a complex phenomenon.
I love psychiatry and psychology. Both crappy pseudoscience that bring so much relief to the masses.
Like a cheessy preacher fleecing the rubes in his congregation, the “professionals” in these “fields” do a great job at turning a profit off of telling people what they want to hear.
Bravo.
I love them too. We are prepared to pour a river of gold down the toilet in the false hope that these shaman might cure us of our emotional ills, and in return we get nothing much more than a promise. What here in Australia we refer to as ‘she’ll be right, mate’. I’d say, forget the $2 promises, stick to an annual monkey gland injection, and we’ll all be the better for it.