Pegah Roshanshomal; Hasan Saraie; Ardeshir Entezari; Mahmoud Moshfegh
Abstract
In recent years, many family concepts have undergone semantic changes. Since the child is the main focus of the family, parents and women's understanding of this concept will determine many decisions in the field of fertility. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the "meaning of a child" and examine ...
Read More
In recent years, many family concepts have undergone semantic changes. Since the child is the main focus of the family, parents and women's understanding of this concept will determine many decisions in the field of fertility. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the "meaning of a child" and examine women's understanding of this concept. This research describes the actor's understanding of the meaning of a child with a qualitative approach. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with twenty married women with children and without children in Tehran by purposive sampling and analyzed by using Smith's six-step technique. The main theme of the research showed that a child is a dynamic and influential concept. In the emotional view, the themes of "good feeling," "filling the scene of life," and "hardness and sweetness" and in the supportive view, the themes of "generational support," "old age support," and "spiritual support" emerged from the findings. A child is a double-edged sword, which means that it is both an obstacle to growth and a factor for success and growth. Growth and development in the personal and marital sphere is one of the most important meanings of a child. A child is a container for filling emotions, which contributes to the stability and continuity of marriage by injecting good feelings. The findings of this study were able to present a clear picture of the meaning of a child.Keywords: Qualitative Method, Theme Analysis, Meaning, Child, Women, Tehran. IntroductionAs a result of the transition of the family after the Industrial Revolution, the form of families changed from extended to nuclear, and after that, choosing a spouse changed from an unconscious and forced state to a conscious and selective action. Accordingly, the age of marriage and after that the age of having children increased, and the family became more damaged in terms of continuity. Behind all these changes, what is important is the change of the most important function of the family, i.e. reproduction of the generation. In the necessity and importance of the issue, it is enough to pay attention to the age pyramid of the population, which is moving towards old age. What has happened in the field of reproductive behavior and leads the population towards old age is the concern of many thinkers. Therefore, focusing on the child and its meaning, in the first step, is much more important and necessary than establishing positive laws. The changes that have occurred in the field of family and fertility behavior indicate that deeper and more radical changes have occurred in the mind, i.e. the bed of meaning formation, the result of which was determined in practice.Research Question(s)What is the understanding of "child" by women in Tehran?What does a child mean from the point of view of married women?What meaning do the activists attribute to the child?What is the variety of the mental meaning of the activists of the child?Literature ReviewKarimi and Samani's findings showed that Iran has been a child-loving society and infertile people or people who do not have children for any reason are under severe pressure from the society. This causes many newlyweds to try to "be like everyone else" in order to gain social approval (Karimi 2016: 111). The results of Farahani and Kayani's research showed that the meaning of a child has changed over time. The view of today's women has changed compared to the women of previous generations. The change of meaning with the passage of time does not mean a change in the value of the child, because perhaps with the passage of time, not only the value of the child has not decreased, but a rational, perfectionist, and measured look for the decision on the time of childbearing and its number, is indicative of the value and quality of the child. So people tend to prepare the conditions in such a way that they can raise a child with better quality (Farahani 2015: 99). The findings of Hashminiya's research showed that economic components, parents' lost opportunity costs, family income, and employment status are influential in the attitude towards the child and shaping its meaning (Hasheminia 2017: 61).Kagi's research results indicate three different types of credits for children; 1. The economic value and benefit that requires the material participation of children in the family. (In childhood as a labor force and in adolescence and youth as a provider of old age security) 2. Psychological values, including happiness, pride, fun, love, hope, and companionship 3. Social and traditional values referring to the social acceptance of parents (Kagitcibasi: 2015: 374). Deir realized that happiness and personal well-being are among the meanings that parents attach to their children. Children are necessary to maintain the security of the marriage bond and create social security for parents in their old age and to preserve the lineage and name (Dyer 2007: 73). The findings of Rani and Babu's research indicated that economic, social, demographic and psychological factors are mixed with the explanation of the concept of child. In developing countries like India, economic drivers influence fertility behavior. The economic value of children includes their participation in work and creating a sense of security for parents in their old age. If children can be useful to their parents in these two areas, then having many children seems completely rational (Rani 2003).Materials and MethodsThis research, with a qualitative approach, has reconsidered the awareness of the meaning of child among married women with and without children. In choosing the questions to start the interview, along with exploratory interviews, we benefited from the meaning-oriented theories in the sociology of knowledge school, and from the child-oriented theories in the field of demography. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews with 25 married women (with children and without children) in the age range of 30 to 50 years old in Tehran, with targeted sampling and with maximum diversity, and using thematic content analysis (TA), analysis and the final report was prepared.ResultsThe meaning of a child from women's points of view is the result of the interaction of cultural and social contexts in which a person is located at a certain point in time. The meaning of a child from women's points of view is the result of many factors and events. What is considered as meaning is the result of gathering a set of external and internal factors that the actor encounters throughout his life. Considering the mentioned fact and the analysis of available data, the main theme of this research is that: "A child is a conceptual combination of emotional, intellectual, individual and collective fluid elements. This cultural entity gives meaning to a mother's life and plays a significant role in the construction of personal, sexual, and adult identity and the development of activist rationality.ConclusionThere are benefits and losses in every choice made by an active community activist, and no choice is without cost. The fertility behavior of the studied women (having or not having a child) is a kind of selective and conscious action along with rationality, which is formed in the context of child perception. How women see a child in society and what position and meaning they attach to it is the turning point that makes them choose to have or not have a child. In choosing not to have children, the activist experiences both personal growth and a degree of deprivation. On the other hand, having a child can be both a factor of destruction and a factor of growth.
Sociology
Seyed Mahdi Etemadifard; Abdollah Bicharanloo; Nooshin Safaeian
Abstract
The most basic issue in this article is to understand how the hierarchy of authority in the family and its changes are represented in social melodrama films with family themes that were best sellers in the period from 2008 to 2018. In the current study, based on contemporary approaches in the ...
Read More
The most basic issue in this article is to understand how the hierarchy of authority in the family and its changes are represented in social melodrama films with family themes that were best sellers in the period from 2008 to 2018. In the current study, based on contemporary approaches in the field of sociology of gender, an attempt has been made to consider power and culture as the key elements in the analysis of films, beyond male and female, to understand power relations in the Iranian family. To analyze this issue in the period mentioned in the research samples, John Fiske’s semiotics model has been used so that while describing the distribution of family authority in these films, we can take a long look at the hierarchy of family authority and its changes. The results indicate that during a decade, we initially see the presence of hegemonic and less hegemonic masculinity and emphatic femininity in these films. In the middle of the decade, the presence of resistant women is more visible, but at the end of this decade, i.e. from 2016 to 2018, hegemonic men and emphatic women are the most important pattern of distribution of authority in the family in these films. What is important in this article is to pay attention to a different aspect compared to the results obtained from previous studies.
Keywords: Family, Femininity, Hierarchy of Authority, Iranian Cinema, Masculinity.
Introduction
The issue of how to divide tasks and perform roles in the family has been ponderable since the past. The hierarchy of authority in the family is based on the core relationships between men and women. It should be said that the most basic purpose of this research is to study "the hierarchy of authority in the family." The importance of the current issue is that the understanding of how the hierarchy of authority is represented in the family and the changes that have occurred in the field of sociology have been mainly focused by studies according to the status of women and the relationships that are created for men based on it. This research is trying to investigate the power relations among all family members using a comprehensive reading. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to analyze how the hierarchy of authority is distributed in the family and its changes in the movies of a decade from 2008 to 2018.
Main question: How is the hierarchy of authority in the family represented in movies, and what changes has it undergone?
Sub-questions: Do we see changes in the levels of authority in the family? Which position for women and men is more frequent in the hierarchy of family authority?
Literature Review
After reviewing the studies related to this field, the Persian researches in this field are categorized into two distinct categories. The first category is based on studies that have studied the hierarchy of authority in the family, which have been studied in different social, economic, cultural, etc. areas, regardless of the media dimensions of the family. The second category is related to studies that emphasize the media representation of the family or women as one of the important elements in the family. In this category, the representation of the family has been explored either in general or based on a particular issue. Foreign studies have paid more attention to the male dimensions of family hierarchy.
Theories Review
The modern theory of sociology of gender, which may have become famous for men's studies, has tried to provide a comprehensive and innovative intellectual system that can be used to examine the type and ranking of authority and power of all members of the family and recognize the traces of power. In this research, we are trying to go beyond the mere gender reading based on the theory of hegemonic masculinity of R. Connell, the theory of second sexism by Benatar, and the theory of expendable men by Baumeister. According to the theory of hegemonic masculinity, there is a cultural ideal type in society based on which the position of men and women is redefined. The second sexism theory and expendable men jointly address the idea of discrimination against men and believe that the problems that men struggle with have been neglected.
Materials and Methods
In this research, the purposive sampling technique has been used. According to the topic and purpose of the research, bestselling movies and dramas were selected. The best-selling social melodrama movies, including family themes have been selected based on the statistical calendar of the sales of cinematographic films published by the Vice-Chancellor of Technology and Cinematic Development of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. In the films in question, the sequences or sub-sequences that describe the linguistic interactions between men and women and other family members are selected for analysis. From 6 to 12 sequences, a variable for each movie, sequences that were purposively selected and analyzed based on John Fiske's triple codes. In John Fiske's view, semiotic analysis seeks to identify encoded semantic layers, and all codes have meaning. Codes have three layers: real or social codes (appearance, clothing, facial expressions, environment, behavior, speech, hand gestures, and voice), Technical codes (camera, lighting, equipment, dialogue, etc.) or representation, and finally, ideological codes (the main concepts and meanings hidden in the text).
Discussion and Conclusion
After analyzing each movie based on John Fiske's triple codes and examining the information obtained through the theory of modern gender sociology, a clear picture of the distribution of authority in each movie emerged. The most frequent masculinities and femininities were identified in 4 specific types: 1. Hegemonic man - emphatic woman 2. Less hegemonic man and emphatic woman 3. Hegemonic man - resistant woman 4. Less hegemonic man - resistant woman.
The most important issue represented in all the movies was protecting the cultural type of hegemonic masculinity. By studying the hierarchies of authority and the signs and elements of hegemonic masculinity of families in the movies, it became clear that the family members tried to maintain the family based on hegemonic masculinity despite the crises and hardships they faced. In a society or in historical periods, there may be different types of masculinity that are valued differently. So, hegemonic masculinity changes over historical periods (Connell 2005: 208-210). In fact, the main expectation from the research was that in the early years, we would see hegemonic men and emphatic women, and in the final years of this decade, we would see fewer hegemonic men and more resistant women. But the process of changing the hierarchy of distribution of authority in the family, in the movies from 2008 to 2018, has not only gone towards a more democratic family, but it has also become more hegemonic and authoritarian. As mentioned in the family typification section, the structure of hegemonic man - emphatic woman is the most frequent structure that has been represented in all the movies and in the last three years, i.e., from 2016 to 2018, it is the dominant and final structure. The initial impression was that by the passage from the 2000s to the 2010s, families in movies have taken a more democratic step; even the aforementioned studies have shown this issue at real levels, but the trend of bestselling movies shows something contrary to the social trend stated in other studies. This indicates a general picture that is being repeated in the studies, but it requires a more detailed investigation and the use of valid indicators in order to measure the authority relations in the Iranian family so that in the study of the construction of authority in the family, the process of becoming participative is not repeated and be sensitive to the occurrence of resistances, conflicts and also interactions that may arise between members.
Sociology
Hamid Sarshar; Javad Kashi; Ali Janadleh
Abstract
The present article aims to trace the understanding of Iran's collective identity in historical reference to the rationality of schools. The theoretical guide of the research is derived from the conceptual apparatus of Michel Foucault, and the methodological logic of the research is through the ...
Read More
The present article aims to trace the understanding of Iran's collective identity in historical reference to the rationality of schools. The theoretical guide of the research is derived from the conceptual apparatus of Michel Foucault, and the methodological logic of the research is through the genealogical approach and Foucauldian discourse analysis. The findings of the study indicate that "historical events" and "multiple developments" during the "confrontation" at the beginning of the confrontation with the civilization of the West made Iran susceptible to multiple situations. Modern education, on the one hand, arose such a desire from within the society that here education is mainly focused on progress in the socio-economic fields and does not have a relation with the collective identity. On the other hand, the structural encounter with the Western world, the mainly military necessity of the government, and the health crisis led to the understanding and "technical rationality" of knowledge. The rationality that later at the end of the century, with the rebellion of the "progressive discourse" from its initial principles and the problematization of collective identity, put modern education at the service of "the impossibility of open collective identity."IntroductionA redefinition of society as “a land and political territory in the modern rational and center-oriented form” has brought about a new stage for human collective settlements. Having had a theory/idea whereby a society is perceived as a state-nation concept as required by modern historical rationality, the problem of collective identity has been raised. Now, with the break of boundaries of “time-space” and the possibility for “a direct action towards the place”, once again our perception of “society” is about to be historically broken. However, the question of the “collective identity of Iran” still remains as one of the serious issues. The simultaneous intermingling of good and evil in modern political rationality has been the source of many misunderstandings and sufferings by confining our understanding of our identity in the form of geographical-political boundaries. But, understanding the collective identity beyond good and evil in history requires a transition from a moral point of view and a focus on historical circumstances.Literature ReviewStudies of collective identity in Iran have mainly focused on the issue of whether Iranian collective identity is a new phenomenon or a late phenomenon. In fact, the main controversy is whether collective identity is "discovered" or "constructed" in the contemporary world. Based on this, the three dominant approaches in the study of Iran's collective identity have been the "nationalistic" narrative, the "modern" narrative, and the "historical" narrative. The nationalist narrative considers Iran's collective identity as a pre-modern phenomenon. The modern narrative considers collective identity as a phenomenon related to the modern world and the formation of state-nations. The historical narrative considers collective identity as a pre-modern phenomenon that has changed over time and has emerged in the modern world in the form of national identity. Dominated by modern rationality, socio-historical studies on Iran which have assumed the collective identity as a sacred affair of fact within a state-nation framework, have been searching for the reasons for collective identity formation, often from a rationalistic and subject-oriented standpoint; so, the question on how such a phenomenon is realized in modern institutions which function as an area where the relations between dominant forces and rationality play the most essential role in organizing modern societies, seems to be the missing part of such socio-historical studies.Research ObjectivesThis research aims to examine the collective identity of contemporary Iran with reference to history in educational practices. This article intends to map the current history of Iran's collective identity with a genealogical approach, in order to record the evolution and heterogeneity of the collective identity outside of a uniform finality by refusing to look for origins. In analyzing the collective identity in the discursive and institutional fabric of contemporary Iranian history, our focus in this research is on the institution of education and educational practices.Theoretical FoundationsThis research is theoretically placed in the postmodern epistemological paradigm, and specifically, the theoretical guide of the research is derived from the conceptual apparatus of Michel Foucault. The author has aimed to trace back the contemporary collective identity of Iran by making historical references to scholastic rationality and educational acts within Foucault’s genealogy, conceptual framework, and logic. From the perspective of Foucault's genealogical approach, the possibilities and impossibilities of social phenomena and their nature can be deciphered in the knowledge-power system.Materials and MethodsThis research has been done using genealogical methodological logic and Foucauldian discourse analysis. Genealogy does not provide a precise methodological logic, but rather an insight to understand the phenomena. An insight that explores the logic of social order, social developments, and the actions of social agents in relation to power-knowledge. An exploration that looks for traces of today's events in the past. Genealogy goes back to history to investigate and understand phenomena, and in this regard, its main emphasis is on dominant rationalities and the formation of power relations.ResultsThe findings of the research indicate that "historical events" and "multiple developments" during the "confrontation" at the beginning of the confrontation with the civilization of the West made Iran susceptible to multiple situations. Modern education, on the one hand, arose such a desire from within the society that here education is mainly focused on progress in the socio-economic fields and does not have a relation with the collective identity. On the other hand, the structural encounter with the Western world, the mainly military necessity of the government, and the health crisis led to the understanding and "technical rationality" of knowledge. The rationality that later at the end of the century, with the rebellion of the "progressive discourse" from its initial principles and the problematization of collective identity, put modern education at the service of "the impossibility of open collective identity."
Sociology
Alireza Bizaban; Ali Imani
Abstract
The main issue of this article is national security. The question of this article is, which societies and why do they experience less potential and actual internal and external threats to national security, while some societies are constantly exposed to and experiencing dangerous threats? What ...
Read More
The main issue of this article is national security. The question of this article is, which societies and why do they experience less potential and actual internal and external threats to national security, while some societies are constantly exposed to and experiencing dangerous threats? What is the situation of Iran in terms of the power of the state and the nation and the dangerous threats to national security? In order to find a theoretical solution to the problem, with the help of nation-state building theories, the dimensions of the power of the state and the nation were extracted, and then, using the theory of historical institutionalism, the theoretical analysis of the relationship between the nation-state and national security was carried out. Furthermore, in order to find an empirical solution to the problem, the quantitative methodology and the secondary analysis technique were used at the macro level, and data related to the research variables for 130 countries were collected from various international sources and analyzed for the period of 2005 to 2022. The findings from the quantitative comparative analysis showed that the capacity of the state and the nation and the balanced construction of their power, as well as the balance of power between the state and nation, which provides the basis for the compatibility and synergy of their power, has a reducing effect on potential and actual internal and external threats and has an increasing effect on national security.
Introduction
Today, all societies are faced with the problem of how to survive in the face of uncertainty, a never-ending set of new challenges, dilemmas, and crises, and random, unpredictable, and risky changes in the surrounding world and within themselves [the sources and roots of these challenges and changes are different; changes in relative prices, changes in demographic components, macroeconomic crises, ethnic conflict, civil wars, technological change, and security conflicts with other governments, etc.] and they should be resolved, controlled, and managed. But despite the increasing density, diversity, and complexity of threats, and the inevitable face of all societies with these threats, they do not have the same performance against these threats and only some societies are able to adapt to these random and unpredictable changes, defend their institutions, rules, values, and identity and modulate and manage threats and therefore have less vulnerability and more resilience. Therefore, the question is raised: which societies and why do they experience less potential and actual internal and external dangerous threats to national security and have more national security, while some societies are continuously exposed to experiencing dangerous threats?
Literature Review
Most of the studies carried out in explaining the factors and conditions affecting the Genesis and continuation of national security in Iran can be divided into three categories based on their focus and emphasis: government-oriented studies, studies that are subject to structural deliverism (external structures of society), and cognitive reductionism. The purpose of this article is to critically confront these studies and try to achieve a deep understanding of the concept of national security and the causal conditions of its Genesis and continuity, emphasizing the mutual relationship between the state and the nation, the mutual relationship between the internal and external structures of society.
Materials and Methods
This research has been done using the quantitative methodology and secondary analysis technique at the macro level. The unit of analysis in this research is the country or the entire social system, in other words, the nation-state. The sample to be studied is the nations that have a population of one million people and have the conditions to establish a nation-state (official and recognized nation-states). Data related to various factors in the recent 17-year period (2005 to 2020) were collected for 130 countries and then averaged from them, and using SPSS software, the correlation between the factors was investigated first, and then using linear regression. Multiple, the extent of influence of the structure and capacity of the government and nation on national security threats have been investigated.
Results
The findings from the analysis of the relationships between the research variables showed that the capacity of the state and the nation and the balanced construction of their power, as well as the balance of power between the government and the nation, which provides the basis for the compatibility and synergy of their power, have a reducing effect on potential and actual domestic and foreign threats, and have an increasing effect on national security.
The findings of the case study of Iran show that the state has little financial, bureaucratic, and political capacities and is also qualified to build a deeply unbalanced power. In fact, the state is more than a bureaucratic apparatus with high executive power and inclusive and maximal character, it is a state with a military-security and minimal character (due to the weakness of political power). It is for mobilizing and organizing oneself and participating to influence the construction of the state, and despite the [small and unstable] economic growth during the past decades, it is deeply unequal, multi-divided (center-periphery gap, class gap, etc.), and therefore has an unbalanced structure. Thirdly, the power of the government and the nation is unbalanced (excess power of the government over the nation), and therefore their relationship is asymmetrical and as a result, they are in a state of "gap" and inequality. In such a situation, i.e. "powerful weakness inside", not only is it not possible to take advantage of the technical and technological, scientific, commercial, and economic opportunities of the international system to restore the power inside, but also in the absence of dependence and mutual benefits with other societies, getting caught in the pitfall of the asymmetric and unequal structure of the world system, and being exposed to its increasing pressures and threats is inevitable.
Conclusion
Without a strong nation-state with a balanced power structure, the institutions, rules, vital values, and national interests of the societies will be exposed to dangerous threats. But the stability of the power of the state and the nation depends on the stability of their "equilibrium" and "balance of power," and when the balance of power between them is upset (the state dominates the nation or the nation dominates the state), their relationship is asymmetrical, and their power will be "asymmetric" and "synonymous" and not "synergistic," which undoubtedly has a reducing effect on both their power and national security. A comparison of the synergy of power and the gap between the state and the nation in different regions of the world shows that societies where the government and its nations do not have equal powers experience greater disparity, in contrast to societies where the state and the nation have equal powers aligned, they are constantly exposed to [experience] dangerous internal and external threats to national security.
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 ...
Read More
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 ...
Read More
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.
