Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1995

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Health Promotion and Health Education

Major Professor

Ian R. H. Rockett

Committee Members

James Neutens, Kathleen deMarrais, Velma Pressly

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between reported suicide rates for elderly females in 20 developed nations for the period 1988- 1990 and social construction and social causation variables. Social construction variables represent factors that might exert an artifactual influence upon observed suicide rate differentials, while social causation variables represent potential social, demographic, and economic determinants of suicide.

Twelve social causation variables and five social construction variables were constructed for this analysis. Correlation coefficients were used to make a preliminary assessment of both the relationship between the outcome variables and the predictor variables, and of the presence of multicollinearity. Then regression analyses were conducted to determine the most parsimonious age- specific models for characterizing the multivariate relationships.

For neither of the age-sex groups examined (females aged 65-74 and 75 and over), did differences in reported cross-national suicide rates appear artifactual For only social causation variables emerged as statistically significant predictors at the .05 level. In the 65-74 age group, gross national product per capita was the sole significant predictor: a $1,000 increase in gross national product per capita would be accompanied by an increase of 0.86 female suicides per 100,000 population. The only social construction variable included in the model. was the annual average rate of deaths due to accidental poisoning. This variable was found to approach statistical significance (p=.07) as one component of an interaction term with the ratio of male to female life-expectancy at birth.

Among females aged 75 and over, no social construction variables entered the final model. The ratio of females aged less than age 15 to those between ages 15 and 64, Protestantism, and Catholicism reached significance at the 05 level. Female labor force participation was also indicated in the model, since it approached statistical significance (p=.09). The analysis indicated that if the ratio of females under age 15 to those aged 15-64 increased by 10 percent, there would be an increase of 84.6 female suicides per 100,000 population. Also, countries with predominantly Catholic and Protestant religions registered 32 and 42 fewer female suicides per 100,000 population, respectively, than the remaining comparison countries. Finally, as the percentage of females making up the labor force increased by one percent, the rate of female suicide increased by 61 persons per 100,000.

Study results led to the conclusion that allowing for both variation in case ascertainment procedures and potential case misclassification did not enhanceour understanding of elderly female suicide rate variation among the 20 nationsincluded in this study. However, the social construction issue should be investigated further using larger data sets and other socio demographic groups.

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