Sociology
Taha Ashayeri; Tahereh Jahanparvar; Hanieh Adel
Abstract
Suicide means ending the social life and shows the decrease of human value and the peak of human suffering. Social capital has a preventive and deterrent role against suicide. The main purpose of the research is to study the effect of social capital on the tendency to commit suicide by relying ...
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Suicide means ending the social life and shows the decrease of human value and the peak of human suffering. Social capital has a preventive and deterrent role against suicide. The main purpose of the research is to study the effect of social capital on the tendency to commit suicide by relying on meta-analysis of studies. The research method is a quantitative meta-analysis (CMA2), and the unit of analysis is the articles and treatises published in the period from 1385 to 1402, which by using the scientific database NoorMags, Magiran, and IranDoc, 48 documents were identified as the statistical population, and after screening (evaluation of entry and exit conditions for analysis), 26 cases of research (sample size) remained in the study process. The statistical method under investigation is Cohen's d and Fisher's f, and the sampling method is a deliberate-non-probability type. The results indicate that social capital has an inverse and significant relationship with suicide tendency, and its effect coefficient is -0.38. Furthermore, the relationship of social cohesion (-0.18), social support (-0.20), social trust (-0.31), and social participation (-0.17) has been significant and inverse with suicide tendency. Based on this, by strengthening and recreating social capital at the macro, medium, and micro levels, the tendency to commit suicide can be prevented in the provinces of the country.
Introduction
Emile Durkheim considers the currents of modernity and the transition from a traditional to a consumerist society as the beginning of the increase in suicide due to lifestyle changes, increased social expectations, and unlimited aspirations. Factors and network structure play an important role in suicide attempts, which include family members, neighborhood system, and close friends. As the capacity of the social network decreases, the possibility of committing suicide increases. Today, social capital has become one of the key variables in research and is a communication factor between people and social networks. The theoretical foundations of Durkheim's suicide classification have been analyzed and explained with the two variables of the degree of integration and social cohesion of individuals with society. Searching for the general word "suicide" in Iran Mag (1734), Normagz (10000), and Iran Doc (1690 research papers and reports) shows the abundance of suicide studies among academic and institutional researchers. The current study aims to investigate the relationship between social capital and suicidal tendency by relying on a quantitative meta-analysis method; examining based on this, the main goal of the research is to estimate the effect size of the social capital variable and its components on the tendency to commit suicide.
Literature Review
Suicide in Iran is a multidimensional matter and can be discussed and investigated from various approaches. In this context, Faizollahi's studies (2022), under the title "Furthercomposition of Suicide Studies in Iran," show that family disorder, abnormal family management, social pressure, tense marital relationships, inconsistency of tradition, access to suicide tools, sterilization of suicide, and social rejection are the grounds that have increased the tendency to commit suicide. Furthermore, Mehri (2001), in a research entitled "Meta-analysis of suicide studies in Iran," factors such as education level, marital status, self-esteem, family cohesion, early marriage, and anxiety about the family's economic situation and Barghamdi (2019), in his studies entitled "Meta-analysis of studies carried out in connection with the suicide of duty workers," showed that individual factors (aggression, sensationalism, narcissistic personality, antisocial personality, abusive personality, neuroticism, ataxia, obsession, morbid fear, psychosis, depression, non-interactive behaviors, lack of behavior control , dramatic personality, borderline personality, anxiety, extroversion/introversion, drug abuse, and paranoid), family factors (lack of social support, cohesion, and family problems), and managerial-organizational factors (commander's behavior, conditions of the service place, the borderline of the service place, and problem solving skill training) have played a decisive role in the tendency to commit suicide. Finally, Moradi and Sharifzadi's research (2019) titled "Metaanalysis of socio-economic factors related to suicide" shows that social capital (communication, support, trust, norms, and obligations), economic problems (employment, family poverty, low income, and disability in passing economic affairs), family problems (incompatibility with conditions, and distrust of family), and weak mental health (despair, depression, and stress) have had a significant relationship with the tendency to commit suicide.
Materials and Methods
The current research method is quantitative meta-analysis CMA2. Meta-analysis is the estimation of the effect size of studies in one main unit. In this method, the researcher evaluates the relationship between independent variables and dependent variables by referring to published articles, research year, correlation coefficient, and significance level. To receive and collect articles from NoorMags, Civilica, IranDoc, and Magiran website with the keywords "social capital and suicide" in the period of 2006 to 2023, the statistical population (47 studies) was identified and after control in terms of method, reliability, validity, and scientific findings, the number of 26 documents have been entered into the software, and the size of the final effect of each research and the total final effect have been estimated by the Fisher and Cohen formula.
Results
The results indicate that social capital has a significant effect on suicide tendency in all studies, and only social capital in the studies of Qadri and Nazari (2018), and Karimi (2019) had no significant relationship with suicide.
The effect of the general index of social capital on the tendency to commit suicide:
Social capital has an inverse and significant relationship with suicide, and its effect coefficient is -0.38. Furthermore, the relationship between the components of social capital, including social cohesion (-0.18), social support (-0.20), social trust (-0.31), and social participation (-0.17) has been significant and inverse with suicide tendency.
Discussion
The main goal of the current research is to study the effect of social capital on the tendency to commit suicide in Iranian society. In this context, about 26 survey documents have been conducted between 1385 and 1402, and it is based on the assumption that suicide in Iran is a function of the amount of social capital or not. To answer this question, researchers have conducted a meta-analysis by collecting survey-based research related to "social capital and suicide." After screening the research and describing the general characteristics of the studied research, the statistical results of Cohen's d and Fisher's f show that social capital is strong support for dealing with the issue of suicide and has a preventive effect against the act and tendency to commit suicide. Social capital includes values and norms that facilitate access to social benefits and goals and give people social credit and dignity of the type of collective identity. As a result, a person resists loneliness, isolation, depression, and rejection, and when faced with crises, he does not understand himself as helpless, the usefulness of social capital, and the creation of a cooperative is cooperation and social support of its members against social risks.
Conclusion
By increasing the amount of social cohesion, the tendency to commit suicide decreases, and its effect size is equal to -0.189. The greater the intensity of social cohesion, the tendency to commit suicide is also reduced.
- Increasing social support has reduced suicide, and its effect size is equal to 0.200 effect size. By increasing the amount of social support of family and society to individuals, the risk of suicide decreases.
- Increasing social trust reduces suicide, and its effect size is equal to 0.319-effect size. The higher the amount of social trust, the more suicide motives decrease.
- The greater the intensity of social participation by the same amount, the tendency to commit suicide decreases, and its effect size is equal to -0.175.
- Social capital, by creating collective resources (material and immaterial) through community, communication, and social relations, empowers people and protects them in a stable collective network when facing individual-social crises. The tendency to commit suicide (meta-analysis of research), suicide prevention mechanisms (according to the findings).
Keywords: Suicide, Social Capital, Meta-Analysis, Risky Behaviors, Social Differentiation.
Sociology
Ardeshir Bahrami; Parvaneh Danesh; Zahra Mohammadi
Abstract
Varamin City has faced an increasing growth in suicide attempts nowadays. The purpose of this research is to study the bases for committing suicide in this city. The approach of this research was qualitative, and the data-based strategy was used to code and analyze the data. The study participants ...
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Varamin City has faced an increasing growth in suicide attempts nowadays. The purpose of this research is to study the bases for committing suicide in this city. The approach of this research was qualitative, and the data-based strategy was used to code and analyze the data. The study participants were all young people from Varamin City who were referred to counseling and welfare centers because of a suicide attempt. Sampling was done in a purposeful and theoretical manner and theoretical saturation was achieved after an in-depth individual interview with seventeen people. The validity of the data was also obtained through review by experts and participants, and citations. The findings indicate that the central phenomenon of attempted suicide among young people under study is reproductive inequality. Causal conditions are disorganization of family boundaries, fear of subjectivity and instrumental view, skeptical self-concept, regressive marriage, and obstruction in self-perpetuation (meaningful agency). The bases also showed themselves in the form of categories such as limited charity, unstable mosaic texture, barren kinship/family chains, emotional poverty, and limited environmental awareness. The results show that in order to reduce suicide among young people, it is necessary to organize their action spaces so that they recognize themselves as agents and identity effectors and resist adverse conditions.
Introduction
Varamin City has faced an increasing growth in suicide attempts. The present study was conducted with the purpose of studying the contexts of suicide in this city. The distribution of suicide rate in Tehran province shows an increase in the suicide rate in the southeast of Tehran. According to the report of the Social Emergency Center of Iran's Welfare Organization (2021), the suicide rate in Varamin City ranks second among the eastern cities of the country after Pishva with 5.8 percent and 5.1 percent (the Social Emergency Center of Iran's Welfare Organization, 1400). Furthermore, in the year 2021, in order of priority, Tehran (1044 cases), Varamin (188 cases), Shemiranat (162 cases), Shahryar (160 cases), Islamshahr (145 cases), Shahr Ray (145 cases) attempted suicide that they have received specialized services from welfare centers. As can be seen, after Tehran, Varamin ranks second in Tehran province with 188 suicide attempts. In addition, in terms of suicidal thoughts in the years 2017 to 2020, after Pakdasht City, Varamin City ranks second among the cities of Tehran province with 57 cases of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
Literature Review
Parvin et al. (2018) investigated "Intentional Suicide: Contexts and Consequences" among young people of Pakdasht. The findings show that the social contexts that caused suicide can be investigated in two dimensions, macro and interpersonal. In the macro dimension, these fields are "weakness in temporal integration, generational poverty, and social backwardness." At the interpersonal level, social contexts include "group tensions, unfulfilled sexual desire, unstable family boundaries, and immature relationships." Delam et al. (2019), in a study titled, "Suicide Attempt by Teenagers: A Qualitative Study," showed that the breakdown of emotional relationships, conflict with family, the collapse of family structure, psychological problems, and the use of ineffective coping strategies are causes of suicide in teenagers. Kouchakian and Kaldi (2020) in "Suicide; A Response to the Elimination Cycle” showed that arbitrary behaviors, forbidden behaviors, valuing romantic feelings and a transcendental attitude towards marriage at the individual level, conflicting power hierarchies, lack of discussion and dialogue and participation, conditional support from parents, and limited interactions and lack of commitment are the main causes of suicide in Tehran. Vanberg et al. (2021) in a study titled, "Suicide Attempts and Suicide of Young Women in Turkey," showed that social and economic conditions such as job, family status, rejection, poverty, long-term physical diseases, and also family conflicts in the form of family violence and betrayal lead to suicide among women. Meng (2020) in "Rebellion and Revenge: The Meaning of Female Suicide in Rural China" showed that suicide in China has a different meaning for women of lower status in the family. Suicide as an act of revenge is understood. Suicide for women is a protest against the existing social and economic pressures that have rejected them morally. Keely et al. (2022) have studied the role of youth's perception of social support in explaining suicidal behavior. The results showed that the relationship between the perception of low school support and suicidal thoughts is stronger in those who do not have parental support.
Materials and Methods
The approach of the current research was qualitative and the data-based strategy was used to code and analyze the data. The study participants were all young people who tried to commit suicide in Varamin City and were then referred to counseling and welfare centers. Sampling was done in a purposeful and theoretical manner, and theoretical saturation was achieved after an in-depth individual interview with seventeen people. The validity of the data was obtained through review by experts, review by participants, and citation.
Results
The findings show that reproductive inequality is the central phenomenon of attempted suicide among young people under study. Causal conditions are "disorganization of family boundaries, fear of subjectivity and instrumental view, skeptical self-concept, regressive marriage, and obstruction in self-giving continuity (meaningful agency). The contexts also showed themselves in the form of categories such as "limited good, unstable mosaic texture, kinship/unproductive family chains, emotional poverty, and limited environmental awareness."
Conclusion
In this research, we wanted to study the bases for suicide attempts among the youth of Varamin City. Therefore, reproductive inequality was identified as the central category of suicide attempts. Causal conditions consist of six categories: "disorganization of family boundaries, fear of subjectivity and instrumental view, skeptical self-concept, regressive marriage, and obstruction in self-continuity (meaningful agency). The bases or contexts also showed themselves in the form of categories such as "limited charity, unstable mosaic texture, barren kinship/family chains, emotional poverty, and limited environmental awareness."
Keywords: Suicide, Fear of Subjectivity and Failure, Unstable Mosaic Texture, Limited Charity, Regressive Marriage.
