Citation

Kunce M, Anderson AL. Urban Stud. 2002; 39(1): 155-162.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Urban Studies Journal Limited, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1080/00420980220099131

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This note examines the purported impact of conventional socioeconomic and social environment factors on annual, state-level suicide rates.

RESULTS from an inductive fixed-effects (covariance) analysis, of state-level time-series/cross-section data for the period 1985-95, do little to support Durkheim's social causes hypothesis that aggregate socioeconomic factors matter in explaining state suicide rates. A possible source of heterogeneity-aggregation bias is identified raising question surrounding past inferences made in aggregate suicide research. The data and empirical method support a mounting sentiment of an abiding ecological fallacy in the suicide literature. Implications of this investigation call for a shift in research focus and method to a smaller unit of analysis (for example, individual-level, controlling for key social processes).

Language: en

Keywords

methodology; socioeconomic conditions; suicide