Citation

Dooley D, Catalano R, Rook K, Serxner S. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 1989; 19(4): 337-351.

Affiliation

University of California, Irvine.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2609363

Abstract

This paper reports the second of two studies of the hypothesis that the economy affects suicide; both studies were based in the same community during approximately the same time period. Although many aggregate-level tests have been conducted using archival measures of unemployment and suicide (the approach used in Part 1), the impact of economic climate on suicidal ideation has not been measured at the individual level. In the study reported here, aggregate economic indicators were combined with individual-level measures of stressful events, symptoms, and suicidal ideation obtained in a survey of Los Angeles from 1978 to 1982. Each of the two studies revealed small associations between economic stress and suicide or suicidal ideation, but they were inconsistent with respect to specific subgroups.