Lay Theories of Suicide: An Examination of Culturally Relevant Suicide Beliefs and Attributions among African Americans and European Americans

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine African Americans' lay beliefs and attributions toward suicide. The Attitudes Toward Suicide Scale, Life Ownership Orientation Questionnaire, Stigma Questionnaire, and Suicide Ideation Questionnaire were administered to 251 undergraduate college students. Beliefs about stigma associated with suicide were comparable across ethnic groups. However, African American college students were significantly less likely than European American college students were to attribute suicide to interpersonal problems and to report that the individual or government is responsible for life. African American students were significantly more likely to report that God is responsible for life. These findings have important implications for suicide risk and also for developing culturally appropriate interventions.Keywords lay theory; suicide; beliefs; attributions; African AmericanThe low suicide rate among African Americans has been attributed in part to long-standing cultural values and beliefs that resist suicidal behavior as a problem-solving alternative (e.g., Gibbs, 1997). However, suicide risk, along with other public health problems, is typically understudied in African American populations, and empirical support for widely held assumptions is sparse. Challenges to understanding suicide in the African American community are compounded by limitations (e.g., false positives) that plague suicide science and prediction of high-risk behavior in the United States. 1 Despite widely held speculation that suicide among African Americans is buffered by cultural beliefs, empirical literature that addresses African Americans' lay attributions for suicide is limited.The purpose of this article is to explore African American lay beliefs about suicide. An interesting question is to ascertain whether these lay beliefs are culturally specific to African

Prevalence of suicide ideation and attempts among Black Americans in later life

“…Consistent with prior research, psychiatric disorders (Cattell, 2000;Cohen et al, 2008;Conwell, 2009;Crocker et al, 2006), including drug use and dependence diagnosis (Slap, Vorters, Chaudhuri, & Centor, 1989) and comorbid psychiatric disorders (Ialongo et al, 2002;Shaffer et al, 1996), were significant predictors of attempted suicide among older Black Americans. Our analyses showed that Blacks with any psychiatric disorder were 4 times more likely to attempt suicide, even when controlling for known protective factors such as religiosity (Chatters, Taylor, Lincoln, Nguyen, & Joe, 2011) and region (Walker, Lester, & Joe, 2006). Unlike previous research on older adults' suicidal behavior, affective disorders were not significant predictors among NSAL respondents.…”

Tobacco Use and Suicidality: Latent Patterns of Co-occurrence Among Black Adolescents

“…For instance, young Black s may have different cultural beliefs and disclose suicidality less readily than Caucasians and therefore may endorse features indicative of suicidality in a unique fashion ( Morrison & Downey, 2000 ;Poussaint & Alexander, 2000 ;Walker & Flowers, 2011 ;Walker, Lester, & Joe, 2006 ). Research indicates that there is stigma related to disclosing thoughts of ending one ' s own life , which has been attributed to religiosity/moral objections and belief in coping/hardiness of the Black community ( Morrison & Downey, 2000 ;Poussaint & Alexander, 2000 ;Walker et al, 2006 ). This might manifest with a decreased endorsement of feeling sad/hopeless, thinking about and/or planning suicide yet endorsing suicide attempts.…”

African‐American Women and Suicide: A Review and Critique of the Literature

“…1998). After exploring lay beliefs held among African‐Americans that could serve as a buffer against suicide, Walker et al. (2006) reported several interesting findings.…”