The Relative Gender Gap in Suicide: Societal Integration, the Culture of Suicide, and Period Effects in 20 Developed Countries, 1955¬タモ1994

Previous research on Australian, Canadian, and U.S. trends in the ratio of male to female suicide rates (the relative gender gap) has concluded that changes in female rates are the principal cause of change in the ratio. Pampel’s (1998) analysis of longitudinal cross-national data asserts that an unmeasured construct labeled “institutional adjustment” and his measure of the “national political context” are important predictors of trends in female suicide and the accompanying trends in the relative gender gap. Tests of Pampel’s measure of national political context failed to find its expected impact on trends in male or female suicide rates or the relative gender gap. However, the period effects attributed by Pampel to the “institutional adjustment” process were evident, even after controlling societal integration and the culture of suicide. Still, Durkheimian indicators of societal integration, national cultures of suicide, and residualized lagged (1938) dependent variables explained most of the variation in 1955–1994 male and female suicide rates and the relative gender gap. © 2001 Academic Press