title: National differences in predictors of suicide among young and elderly citizens: linking societal predictors to psychological factors.
abstract: Suicide is usually conceptualized as arising either because of social phenomena or individual dynamics. In this study, these approaches were combined by analyzing suicide rates of younger people aged 15-24 and elderly aged 65-74 from 54 nations using societal variables in conjunction with psychological measures of citizen characteristics as mediators. A mediated analysis showed that psychological citizen factors, like home satisfaction and happiness, mediated the impact of societal variables, like the sex ratio, in predicting suicide rates. We found different psychological and societal predictors for young and elderly suicides, with elderly suicide rates being much more predictable. An age-responsive Durkheimian framework focusing on the dynamics of social integration at different ages was used to interpret these results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China. wchwu@psy.cuhk.edu.hk
authors.forename: Wesley C H
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Michael Harris
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Bond
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012945:Social Values; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data