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Abstract
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Multidisciplinary approaches are needed to understand the complex interplay of the numerous causes and influences of suicide and to inform the development and evaluation of preventive efforts. For many early-career researchers like myself, the task of navigating the concepts, approaches, and methods applicable to suicide research can be daunting without a disciplinary core through which such knowledge is typically organized. Advancing Suicide Research (2021) draws on the wealth of experience of knowledgeable researchers to address this gap.
The first five chapters cover important background to suicide and public health research that enables the reader to better appreciate exactly how they mesh. The first chapter covers the intellectual history of suicide from antiquity to modern times and the shift from moral and legal preoccupations with judging the suicidal person to various early modern attempts at understanding suicidal behavior. These developments not only gave rise to the public health approach in the 20th century but have contributed to diverse and sometimes conflicting definitions of suicide and related behaviors. Chapter 2 highlights the similarities and differences in such definitions that will help the reader better navigate the research literature and critically appreciate the extent to which existing evidence can be generalized and compared. Chapter 3 introduces the contemporary concepts of a public health approach engendered in the World Health Organization (WHO, 2012) recommendations for prevention with a case study of how this has been implemented and evaluated in Hong Kong. The book then shifts from conceptual to practical considerations by exploring the various ethical issues in suicide research and offering case studies exemplifying how they are managed (Chapter 4) and by outlining different measures fundamental to epidemiological studies of suicide and related behaviors in a public health framework (Chapter 5).
This comprehensive introduction paves the way for a more detailed examination of specific methods and methodologies through which public health studies of suicide can be undertaken.
Language: en |