Citation

Stack S, Cao L. Arch. Suicide Res. 2019; ePub(ePub): 1-16.

Affiliation

University of Ontario Institute of Technology , Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, International Academy of Suicide Research, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13811118.2019.1572556

PMID

30734647

Abstract

Aspects of social integration including religion, and residential stability have often been found to serve as protective factors against suicide in sociological analyses. However, empirical research on Canadian indigenous suicidality has neglected these dimensions of integration. The present study fills this gap, while controlling for other major predictors of suicide ideation.

METHODS: Data are from a national representative sample (N= 15,294) from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey. The dependent variable is a dichotomy: lifetime prevalence of suicide ideation (SI). Measures of social integration include religious affiliation, marital status, family ties and residential stability. Controls are incorporated for alternative predictors of SI including psychiatric symptoms (e.g., mood disorder), economic strain, ethnicity, and demographics.

RESULTS: Findings from a multivariate logistic regression analysis confirmed an association between SI and most measures of social integration, (e.g., married persons were 14% less apt to report SI than non married persons), but not with religious affiliation. Further, each unit increase in income reduced the risk of SI by 3.8%. Psychiatric symptoms increased risk of SI (e.g., mood disorder, OR =3.16, substance abuse, OR =2.38), and Inuit ethnicity increased SI risk by 57 percent (OR =1.57).The model explained 26.1% of the variance in SI.

CONCLUSION: Generally, measures of social integration, psychiatric symptoms and economic strain predicted SI. However, there was no evidence that religion acted as a protective factor against SI. Future research is needed on other dimensions of religion such as self reported religiousness, which may protect against suicidality.

Language: en

Keywords

indigenous; religion; social integration; suicide ideation