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Industry: Email Alert RSS FeedAttitudes and beliefs about suicidal behavior when coming out is the precipitant of the suicidal behavior
Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, Nov, 2003 by Jennifer Ellen Cato, Silvia Sara Canetto
Responses to suicidal behavior also vary across types of respondents. In general, women are less accepting of suicidal behavior than are men, especially if respondents are explicitly asked to judge the suicidal decision rather than the suicidal person. For example, in one study, men tended to agree with and accept the suicidal decision more than did women, independent of precipitant (Dahlen & Canetto, 2002). In other studies, men were more likely than women to view the decision to kill oneself as an individual right (Eskin, 1995; Marks, 1988-1989; Wellman & Wellman, 1986). However, in a study where the focus was less clearly on the suicidal decision than on the suicidal person (for instance, participants were shown "pictures" of the suicidal person), women were more likely than men to consider the suicidal decision as justified (van Winkle, Calhoun, Cann, & Tedeschi, 1998). Finally, evidence suggests that androgynous persons tend to see the decision to engage in suicidal behavior as foolish, independent of the reasons for the suicidal behavior (Dahlen & Canetto, 2002).
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So far, only one study has contributed some insights on attitudes about suicidal behavior by LGB youths. This study involved semistructured interviews with more than 60 LGB high school students in Salt Lake City, Utah, following a controversial decision by the Salt Lake City School Board and the state legislature to ban all noncurricular clubs rather than allow the establishment of a Gay/Straight Alliance club. The interviews dealt broadly with the experience of LGB youths in Salt Lake City. One unexpected finding of this study concerned reports of suicidal behavior. Suicidal behavior was described by these LGB youth as inevitable, almost as a rite of passage. Many respondents referred "with casual familiarity" to their own past suicidal behavior, "as well as to late-night conversations with suicidal friends" (Russell, Bohan, & Lilly, 2000, p. 80). Talk about suicide was described as ordinary and "mundane" (p. 81). One of the interviewees was quoted as saying: "We all wear our stripes on our sleeves and on our wrists, so to speak" (p. 80). The authors of the study concluded that "some youth may actually feel inadequate as queers if they have not attempted suicide" (p. 80).
The Utah study offered a much-needed glimpse into the meaning of suicidal behavior for LGB youths. A limitation of the Utah study is that the data were collected at a time of community turmoil. Apparently the Gay/Straight Alliance club's founding and the School Board's decision "ignited a media storm that reached international proportions" (Russell et al., 2000, p. 70). The unique circumstances and cultural location of the study raise questions about the findings' generalizability. Furthermore, the Utah study did not specifically focus on attitudes and beliefs about suicidal behavior in LGB youths. Finally, the Utah study only included LGB respondents. An assessment of cultural attitudes about suicidal behavior in LGB individuals would require an evaluation of the attitudes of heterosexual respondents as well.
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