Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Taha Ashayeri ¹
• Tahereh Jahanparvar ²
• Hanieh Adel ³

¹ Assistant professor of History and Social Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran

² Ph.D. Candidate in Cultural Sociology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

³ M.A. in Cultural Studies, Kashan University, Kashan, Iran

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 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.
 
 
 
 

Keywords

• Suicide
• Social Capital
• Meta-Analysis
• Risky Behaviors
• Social Differentiation

Main Subjects

• Sociology