Citation

Steen DM, Mayer P. Arch. Suicide Res. 2003; 7(3): 247-264.

Affiliation

Department of Politics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, S.A., Australia

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, International Academy of Suicide Research, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13811110301556

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Girard (1993) suggests that age and gender specific suicide patterns can be predicted by economic progress. However, human development, especially the empowerment of women, is also an integral part of advancement. India consists of 24 states, at various stages of development, with diverse suicide patterns. Statistical analyses were conducted on suicide data from 14 Indian states (1997). Human development factors did predict suicide rates for both genders, but there was no significant relationship between suicide rates and economic factors. Moreover, when human development and economic factors were used as multinomial logit estimators, they failed to clearly predict probabilities of specific age and gender suicide patterns. Findings support the view that explanations for disparity in suicide rates appear to be more complicated for less developed nations than they are for developed countries.