Psychological strains and youth suicide in rural China

Abstract

The strain theory of suicide postulates that suicide is usually preceded by psychological strains. A strain can be a consequence of any of four conflicts: differential values, aspiration and reality, relative deprivation, and lack of coping skills for a crisis. This study, with a blend of psychiatric and social predictors of suicide, identified correlates of suicide that are relevant to Chinese culture and tested the strain theory of suicide with Chinese data. We sampled 392 suicides and 416 living controls (both aged 15–34 years) from 16 rural counties in China in 2008 and interviewed two informants for each suicide and each control. We found that marriage and religion/religiosity did not distinguish the suicides from the living controls among Chinese rural young women. Religion/religiosity tended to be stronger for suicides than for controls. Psychological strains in the forms of relative deprivation, unrealized aspiration, and lack of coping skills were significantly associated with suicide, even after accounting for the role of mental illness. The strain theory of suicide forms a challenge to the psychiatric model popular in the West, at least in explaining the Chinese suicide.

Psychological Strain and Suicidal Ideation among Chinese Young People

“…About relative deprivation, the result is consistent with the earlier findings which confirm the strain can impact suicide ideation (Zhang and Tao, 2013). When everyone is living in poor, poverty is not a stressor, but when the balance is broken, the person may feel frustrated by comparing with others (Zhang et al, 2011) and then may lead to suicide. So we can understand why higher level of relative deprivation significantly predicts greater suicidal ideation.…”

“…Table 2 shows that the four dimensions of psychological strain are significantly related to each other. It proves that the four dimensions of psychological strain are closely related, and the formation of psychological strain must have the existence of multiple related pressure sources (Zhang et al, 2011). As can be seen in the adapt to this kind of cultural conflict may lead to negative emotion (Zhang et al, 2010).…”

“…It is noteworthy that there exist mutually positive and significant relationship in the four dimension of psychological strain, which is consistent with the theory of psychological strain. The psychological strain is different from a single pressure, and it is from at least two conflicting pressures or two variables (Zhang et al, 2011). It shows that the psychological strain comes from the interactions of the four dimensions.…”

“…The less experience and skills you have, the stronger the strain will be when the crisis occurs. Psychological strain is comprised of at least two sources, rather than simply one (Zhang et al, 2011). When the individual is unable to give up any one of the two conflicting factors, it will experience the psychological distress, and the psychological distress forces the individual to make rational choices, which may commit suicide in order to alleviate the psychological strain (Zhang et al, 2011;Zhang and Lv, 2014).…”

“…The scale is comprised of 60 items. There are four sources of psychological stains by the Strain Theory of suicide and mental disorder: (1) differential values strain, (2) discrepancy between aspiration and reality, (3) relative deprivation, and (4) crisis and the lack of coping skills (Zhang et al, 2011). Each of them is likely to precede a suicidal behavior or mental disorder onset.…”