Gender and Cultural Patterns of Suicidal Behavior
Young Hindustani Immigrant Women in The Netherlands
Abstract
Patterns of suicidal behavior vary among cultures and along gender. Young Hindustani immigrant women attempt suicide four times more often than young Dutch women. This article explores multi-disciplinary explanations for suicidal behavior in this group. The interconnection of Durkheimian concepts of social integration and regulation with ecological insights into family relations and psychological and psychiatric theories on individual distress are relevant. It is suggested that young Hindustani women who display suicidal behavior possess certain personality and cognitive constellations that are interlocked with specific parenting styles in stressful family environments. These families are embedded in a context of moral transformations resulting from migration to a Western culture and may be facing difficulties accompanying the transitional processes encountered in the West, particularly those regarding gender roles. Durkheimian fatalistic and anomic suicides elucidate this. The Hindustani women who appear most at risk are those facing contradictory norms and overregulation, which prevent them from developing autonomy.
References
(1996). Youth suicide attempts: A social and demographic profile. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 32, 349–357.
(1994). Acculturative stress. In , Psychology and culture (pp. 211–217). London: Allyn and Bacon.
(2002). Attempted suicide in South Asian Women. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 8, 418–423.
(1999). Attempted suicide in West London. I. Rates across ethnic communities. Psychological Medicine, 29, 1125–1130.
(1993). Adolescent suicidal behavior: A clinical-developmental perspective. PhD thesis: Leiden, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden.
(2005). Parasuicides in en Haag: Meldingen in de ja 2000–2004. [Incidences of suicidal behavior in the city of the Hague in the period 2000–2004] Epidemiologisch Bulletin, 40, 2–8.
(2001). Suicidal behavior among Latino youth. Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior, 31, 122–131.
(1999). The handbook of child and adolescent clinical psychology. London: Routledge.
(1998). Family rigidity, adolescent problem-solving deficits, and suicidal ideation: A mediational model. Journal of Adolescence, 21, 459–72.
(2003). Hindostanis: From British-Indian migrants to Surinam to citizens of The Netherlands. The Hague: Communicatiebureau Sampreshan.
(2006). Definitions of suicidal behavior. Crisis, 27, 4–15.
(2004). Religious affiliation and suicide attempt. American Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 2303–2308.
(1952). Suicide: A study in sociology London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (Original work published 1897)
(2002). Cultural correlates of youth suicide. Social Science & Medicine, 55, 1891–1904.
(1993). The relationship between sexual abuse and female sexual behavior. Crisis, 14, 129–139.
(1996). Culture, relativism, and the expression of mental distress: South Asian women in Britain. Sociology of Health & Illness, 18(1), 66–85.
(1964). Status integration theory and suicide. Oregon: University of Oregon Books.
(
in press ). High rates of suicide and attempted suicide using pesticides in Nickerie, Surinam, South America. Crisis.(2002). Religiosity, attributional style, and social support as psychosocial buffers for African American and white adolescents' perceived risk for suicide. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 32, 404–417.
(2003). Perceived causes of suicide attempts by UK South Asian women. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 73, 455–462.
(2004). Risk factors of suicidal ideations and attempts in talented, at-risk girls. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 34, 267–276.
(2000). Emancipatie Monitor 2000. [
Report on Emancipation in The Netherlands by Social and Cultural Planning Agency of The Netherlands ]. The Hague: Sociaal-Cultureel Planbureau.(2000). Suicidal behavior among immigrant girls and immigrant young women. The Hague: Bureau Public Health Service.
(1997). An empirical examination of Thomas Masaryk theory on suicide. Archives of Suicide Research, 3(2), 125–132.
(1994). Parental bonding and vulnerability to adolescent suicide. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 89, 246–254.
(1983). Zelfmoord en zelfmoordpoging. [
Suicide and attempted suicide ]. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, The Netherlands(1999). Incarcerated adolescents' distress and suicidality in relation to parental bonding styles. Crisis, 20, 164–170.
(2003). The relationship between childhood physical abuse and suicidality among depressed women: Results from a community sample. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 933–938.
(1992). Suicidal adolescents' perceptions of the family environment. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 22(2), 226–239.
(1999). The subjective experience of problem irresolvability and suicidal behavior: Dynamics and measurement. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 29, 150–164.
(1996). Suicide among immigrants from the Indian subcontinent: A review. Psychiatric Services, 47, 517–521.
(1994). Bringing Durkheim into the twenty-first century. A network approach to unresolved issues in the sociology. In , Durkheim and le suicide. 100 years later (pp. 264–296). Philadelphia: Charles Press.
(2004). A study of the well-being of Hindustani young women in The Hague. The Hague: Public Health Services.
(2000). Suicide: A 15-year review of the sociological literature. Cultural and economic factors. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 30, 145–162.
(2001). Differences in nonfatal suicide behaviors among Mexican and European American middle school children. Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior, 31, 214–223.
(2000). Biological aspects of suicidal behavior. In , International handbook of suicide and attempted suicide (pp. 65–78). Chichester: Wiley.
(1986). Suicide and ethnic factors in Canada. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 32, 55–64.
(1997). Adolescent gender differences in suicide-related behaviors. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 26, 559–567.
(2004). Exploration of causes of suicidal behavior of South Asian women in the United Kingdom. Unpublished MA dissertation, Goldsmiths College, University of London.
(1993). The relationship between sexual abuse and female sexual behavior. Crisis, 14, 129–139.
(2002). Explaining the gender difference in self-reported suicide attempts: A nationally representative study of Norwegian adolescents. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 32, 101–116.
(2001). Suicide and attempted suicide. Understanding the cry of pain. London: Penguin Books.
