Tag: suicide
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Self-Harm and Social Contagion in Adolescents
Self-harm, defined as the “deliberate destruction or alteration of one’s body tissues without suicidal intent” (p. 2), is strongly associated with suicide in research findings. “Explicit depictions of self-harm are now easily accessible via popular content-sharing platforms such as Instagram and Youtube” (p. 2) lending itself to possible social contagion effects. What are the connections…
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Does type of occupation relate to “deaths of despair”?
Deaths of despair (DOD) are highest among less-educated White Americans. Educational level is highly correlated with type of occupation such that many “working class” jobs involve higher risk of injury. In this paper, the authors focused on a logical question about connections between deaths of despair and occupational hazards. Are people in occupations prone to…
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Did COVID-19 lead to a spike in “deaths of despair”?
Prior studies of “deaths of despair”(DOD) have documented this trend in the U.S. but not in Western European nations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns were raised about potential spikes in suicide and drug abuse rates due to social isolation, job loss, economic insecurity, and inaccessibility of services. The authors of this study used pandemic data…
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Does declining religious participation affect “deaths of despair”?
In this “working paper” (which means it has not been subjected to peer review), the authors propose an interesting hypothesis: “Deaths of despair” (DOD) are connected to reduced religious participation which may have resulted from the repeal of “blue laws.” They point to the fact that the rise in DOD happened earlier than 1999, beginning…
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Do declining economic conditions explain the rise in “deaths of despair”?
In three publications (2015, 2017, 2020), Case and Deaton identified the alarming trend in “deaths of despair” (DOD) among White middle-aged Americans with less education and proposed that declining economic conditions may have contributed to the high rates of DOD among this population. Ruhm set out to address the question: can DOD be accounted for…
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“Deaths from despair?” What are they and why do they matter?
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) publish mortality data, “Multiple Cause of Death” files, for all deaths in the U.S. (beginning in 1969) based on death certificates filed in each US county. Deaths of middle-aged White Americans (ages 45-64) steadily declined through the 1980s. However, beginning in the 1990s there was a sharp up-surge in…