Socioeconomic inequalities of suicide: Sociological and psychological intersections:
Summary (2 min read)
Introduction
- Edinburgh Research Explorer Socioeconomic inequalities of suicide Citation for published version: Chandler, A 2019, 'Socioeconomic inequalities of suicide: Sociological and psychological intersections', European Journal of Social Theory.
- The contributions of sociology and psychology to the study of suicide are less easily understood as oppositional, or binary, though this is often how they are described.
- By focusing on psychological and sociological attempts to understand the relationship between socioeconomic inequalities and suicide, I demonstrate some of the significant promise of more ambitious interdisciplinary endeavours.
Cumulative disadvantage
- The theme of cumulative disadvantage featured in both the psychological literature reviewed by Kirtley and O’Connor, and in the qualitative research.
- Thus, ACEs were framed as doubly contributing (though not neatly) to suicide risk in adulthood, both through independent correlation of ACEs with suicide attempts, and through increasing the chance of living with socioeconomic disadvantage as an adult, which is also independently correlated with suicide.
- Curiously, two of the sociologically informed qualitative studies displayed a tendency to draw on qualitative data in order to quantify the impact of such experiences (Huey et al., 2014; Stack & Wasserman, 2007).
- This resulted in analyses which ultimately stopped short of explaining how and why such accumulations of disadvantage result in greater chances of self-harm and suicide in a given context.
- The disjuncture between qualitative findings within a particular population (men leaving prison) and quantitative studies of risk factors in more general populations indicates both the need for, and the challenge of doing suicide research which moves between the specific and the general.
Emotions and inequalities
- The role of emotions in mediating or shaping the relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage, self-harm, and suicide was another clear intersection between the two chapters.
- The psychological literature reviewed by Kirtley and O’Connor highlighted the role of specific emotions or feeling-states, namely: defeat, entrapment, humiliation and shame, though they were forced to extrapolate findings somewhat, since they were unable to identify psychological studies which addressed these factors in relation to socioeconomic disadvantage.
- Perhaps unsurprisingly, the way in which emotions emerged in these papers diverged significantly from the quantitative studies, though there were also important divergences among the qualitative studies.
- This highlights a rather obvious distinction between the data generated by quantitative and qualitative work.
- Fullagar argues that “individualizing discourses of neoliberalism are implicated in perpetuating shame” (p. 300), as well as in encouraging youth experiencing suicidal thoughts to feel personally responsible (and thus doubly shamed) for their emotions (see also McDermott & Roen, 2016).
The relevance of shame
- The qualitative review identified two emotions as important in both researchers’ analysis of suicide and self-harm in the context of socioeconomic context, and in the accounts of participants: anger, and shame.
- Indeed, Scheff has made some initial suggestions regarding this.
- Scheff draws here on Marx’s notion of false class consciousness, proposing that attending to emotion can help explain why members of subordinate classes tolerate their oppression (1990 p. 120-1).
- In contrast, McDermott and Roen (2016) have drawn on alternative literatures (e.g. Ahmed, 2014; Sedgwick, 2003) to theorise the embodied, affective experiences of shame and selfharm among young, queer youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Their analysis somewhat contradicts Scheff’s claim that shame is ‘ubiquitous and hidden’, highlighting the ways that shame is unequally distributed, or perhaps more pointedly, how resources through which shame might be resisted are unequally distributed.
Agency and the status of accounts
- The themes addressed thus far are each liable to result in structurally oriented accounts of the role of socioeconomic disadvantage, which tend to minimise the agency of the person self- harming or dying by suicide.
- Within suicidology, psychiatrists and psychologists alike have noted that motives – and methods – for self-harm may change over time, be multiple and contradictory, or reflect deep ambivalence about life or death (Arensman & Keeley, 2012; De Leo, 2011; Kapur et al., 2013).
- A more recent paper, by Byng and colleagues (2015) significantly pushes forward a sociological agenda in interpreting accounts of suicide and self-harm, drawing on Emirbayer and Mische’s (1998) comprehensive examination of sociological approaches to the concept of agency.
- A key divergence between psychological and sociological approaches with regard to the role of life histories and their impact on current reasoning, reflection and agency, lies in the different lenses applied.
- The intersections noted above point to fertile starting points for such collaborative efforts.
Notes
- Defining suicide and self-harm is challenging and contested.
- While individual accounts of self-harm (particularly selfcutting) often frame this as the ‘opposite of suicide’, there are – arguable, contested – relationships between self-harming practices which do and do not result in death.
- With suicide the account is rendered void by the existence of a dead body – but see Jaworski 2014 for an account which troubles this connection.
- I use the term here because Byng et al.
- This point was raised by colleagues at the Critical Suicidology 2.0 conference, Canterbury Christ Church University June 2017.
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Citations
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Cites background from "Socioeconomic inequalities of suici..."
...In the UK, the US and other minority world contexts, male suicide rates are between three and five times higher than women’s (Payne, Swami, & Stanistreet, 2008), a topic which has garnered significant concern, framed in some cases as a ‘crisis’ (Jordan & Chandler, 2019)....
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...However, gendered understandings of suicide and self-harm are intriguingly resilient (Jordan & Chandler, 2019; Scourfield, 2005)....
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...Existing sociological research addressing suicide among men is characterised by a concern with the impact of hegemonic masculinity (Abrutyn & Mueller, 2018; Cleary, 2012; Fincham et al., 2011; Garcia, 2016; Reeves & Stuckler, 2016)....
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...Most research addressing suicide – including within sociology – has employed quantitative methods, quite far removed from what might be understood as the ‘lived experience’ of suicide/self-harm (Abrutyn & Mueller, 2014; Chandler, 2019; Wray, Colen, & Pescosolido, 2011)....
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...Despite a long history within sociology, the study of suicide and self-harm remains a relatively marginal activity among sociologists, and in the allegedly interdisciplinary field of suicidology (Chandler, 2019)....
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References
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...This issue has recently been played out in discussions regarding the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and the inclusion of proposed new diagnoses: Suicidal Behaviour Disorder, and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (Chandler, 2016)....
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...In contrast, McDermott and Roen (2016) have drawn on alternative literatures (e.g. Ahmed, 2014; Sedgwick, 2003) to theorize the embodied, affective experiences of grounds....
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4,062 citations
"Socioeconomic inequalities of suici..." refers background in this paper
...…understood as ‘one of life’s ultimate acts’ (2015: 937).3 Sociological theory and research continue to grapple with the concept of agency (Burkitt, 2016; Emirbayer and Mische, 1998; McNay, 2008), and reflection on the position of qualitative accounts of suicide and self-harm within suicidology…...
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...…engage in repeated acts of self-harm, and who describe ‘chaotic’ lives in which they feel powerless, categorizing these as embodying ‘restricted agency’, which is primarily iterative (following Emirbayer and Mische, 1998) or akin to Margaret Archer’s ‘fractured reflexives’ (Byng et al., 2015: 948)....
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...Sociologically, the status of accounts have long been an issue of importance (Mills, 1940; Scott and Lyman, 1968), and these theoretical and methodological discussions are directly relevant to understanding debates about motives, and the status of accounts about self-harm and suicide (Fincham et…...
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...Sociologically, the status of accounts have long been an issue of importance (Mills, 1940; Scott and Lyman, 1968), and these theoretical and methodological discussions are directly relevant to understanding debates about motives, and the status of accounts about self-harm and suicide (Fincham et al....
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Related Papers (5)
Frequently Asked Questions (13)
Q2. What does Barnes and colleagues say about the role of socioeconomic disadvantage in the analysis?
Socioeconomic disadvantage either accumulates in a person’s life ‘resulting’ in suicide or self-harm; or else it contributes to emotional responses, which similarly ‘result’ in suicide or self-harm.
Q3. What role did Everall et al. play in the study?
Their findings point to an important role for emotions and feelings – for affective evaluations of the self, and how these relate to social contexts.
Q4. What is the significance of the concept of agency?
As such, the concept of agency has clearrelevance to psychological models of suicidal behaviour (such as O’Connor’s IMV) which engage directly with the role of individual choice and the ability to reflect, and the psychological factors which might mediate this.
Q5. What is the role of agency in the definition of self-harm and suicide?
Agency and the ascription of motivation are central to long-standing deliberations regarding the definition of self-harm and suicide (Chaney, 2017; Jaworski, 2014; Millard, 2015).
Q6. What does the authors suggest about shame?
while they also frame shame (and self-harm) as hidden and secret, they suggest that when shame becomes visible – when it is acknowledged – it can be felt more intensely.
Q7. What is the role of agency in the study of self-harm and suicide?
Attending to qualitative accounts of self-harm and suicide, and examining how these might contribute to an understanding of the relationship between suicide and socioeconomic inequalities, necessitates a critical examination of agency, and with this, the status of accounts about self-harm and suicide.
Q8. What are the themes addressed so far?
The themes addressed thus far are each liable to result in structurally oriented accounts of the role of socioeconomic disadvantage, which tend to minimise the agency of the person self-harming or dying by suicide.
Q9. What is the significance of the argument?
This argument underlines the relevance of theoretically informed analyses which draw on both sociological and psychological traditions, in order to inform policy and practice in suicide prevention.
Q10. What is the definition of what the authors refer to as “cause and effect thinking”?
A further criticism which has been levelled at psychological models of suicide, which draw largely on quantitative evidence, is their linearity, and what Hjelmeland & Knizek refer to as “cause and effect thinking” (2016).
Q11. What is the role of mastery in the study?
A significant aspect of Byng et al’s analysis is the role of mastery, and their enrolment of both sociological and psychological theory in seeking to understand the variations between participants reported histories of suicidal thoughts, self-harm, and adversity.
Q12. What is the role of stigma in the study?
they note the potential role of stigma for those living with socioeconomic disadvantage, also highlighting evidence that feelings of low self-worth endured even when personal finances improved.
Q13. What is the role of social and cultural contexts in shaping experiences of shame?
Like Fullagar (2003), McDermott and Roen note the importance of wider social and cultural contexts in shaping experiences of shame, and in understanding how such affective feelings might relate to self-harm.