Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry (생물정신의학)

The Korean Society of Biological Psychiatry (대한생물정신의학회)
권호 표지

A Comparative Study of Permissive Attitudes Toward Suicide : An Analysis of Cross-National Survey in South Korea, Japan, and the United States

  • Park, C. Hyung Keun (Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital) ;
  • Kim, Bora (Department of Psychiatry, University of California at San Francisco) ;
  • Lee, Sang Sin (Korean Institute for National Unification) ;
  • Ha, Kyooseob (Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital) ;
  • Baek, Chang-Jae (Department of Political Science and International Relations, College of Social Sciences, Seoul National University) ;
  • Shin, Min-Sup (Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital) ;
  • Ahn, Yong-Min (Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital)
  • Received : 2016.08.02
  • Accepted : 2016.08.12
  • Published : 2016.11.30
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

Objectives There were previous studies which indicated that attitude toward suicide is able to influence the suicide outcome in both individual and group levels. In regard to the highest suicide rate in Korea, our study aims to explore the influence that attitude toward suicide has on suicide by comparing the national attitude towards suicide with a representative sample of the general population. Methods The target population was 20- to 59-year-old adults from South Korea, Japan, and the United States. The panel data were divided according to gender, age, and residential area of individuals, and an email with a hyperlink to our web survey was sent to the randomly selected participants in each stratum. To measure the perceptual differences about suicide in different cultures, this study adopted the Attitudes Toward Suicide questionnaire. Results A total of 2247 subjects in three countries participated in this study. According to results from factor analysis, there were different structure of factors and included items within factors in the three countries : five factors with nineteen items in South Korea, five factors with nineteen items in the United States, and five factors with twenty-five items in Japan. With regard to permissive attitude toward suicide, the mean value of permissiveness was not significantly different among countries, but permissiveness according to education level, gender, and marital status was different in each country. Conclusions This study is the first nationwide comparative study about attitude toward suicide with a representative sample. Our findings suggest that permissive attitude toward suicide influence the suicide phenomenon in each country ; however, its impact is not a mean score of permissiveness, but the detailed difference by various demographics.

Keywords

References

  1. Zemaitiene N, Zaborskis A. Suicidal tendencies and attitude towards freedom to choose suicide among Lithuanian schoolchildren: results from three cross-sectional studies in 1994, 1998, and 2002. BMC Public Health 2005;5:83. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-5-83
  2. McAuliffe C, Corcoran P, Keeley HS, Perry IJ. Risk of suicide ideation associated with problem-solving ability and attitudes toward suicidal behavior in university students. Crisis 2003;24:160-167. https://doi.org/10.1027//0227-5910.24.4.160
  3. Dervic K, Gould MS, Lenz G, Kleinman M, Akkaya-Kalayci T, Velting D, et al. Youth suicide risk factors and attitudes in New York and Vienna: a cross-cultural comparison. Suicide Life Threat Behav 2006;36:539-552. https://doi.org/10.1521/suli.2006.36.5.539
  4. Domino G, Leenaars AA. Attitudes toward suicide: a comparison of Canadian and U.S. college students. Suicide Life Threat Behav 1989;19:160-172. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1943-278X.1989.tb01030.x
  5. Domino G, Takahashi Y. Attitudes toward suicide in Japanese and American medical students. Suicide Life Threat Behav 1991;21:345-359.
  6. Skruibis P, Gailiene D, Hjelmeland H, Fartacek R, Fekete S, Knizek BL, et al. Attitudes towards suicide among regional politicians in Lithuania, Austria, Hungary, Norway and Sweden. Suicidol Online 2010;1:79-87.
  7. Arsenault-Lapierre G, Kim C, Turecki G. Psychiatric diagnoses in 3275 suicides: a meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry 2004;4:37. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-4-37
  8. Mann JJ, Apter A, Bertolote J, Beautrais A, Currier D, Haas A, et al. Suicide prevention strategies: a systematic review. JAMA 2005;294:2064-2074. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.294.16.2064
  9. Shneidman ES. Suicidology and the university: a founder's reflections at 80. Suicide Life Threat Behav 2001;31:1-8.
  10. Chen J, Choi YJ, Mori K, Sawada Y, Sugano S. Socio-economic studies on suicide: a survey. J Econ Surv 2012;26:271-306. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6419.2010.00645.x
  11. Samuelsson M, Sunbring Y, Winell I, Asberg M. Nurses' attitudes to attempted suicide patients. Scand J Caring Sci 1997;11:232-237. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6712.1997.tb00461.x
  12. Botega NJ, Reginato DG, da Silva SV, Cais CF, Rapeli CB, Mauro ML, et al. Nursing personnel attitudes towards suicide: the development of a measure scale. Rev Bras Psiquiatr 2005;27:315-318. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1516-44462005000400011
  13. Oncu B, Soyka C, Ihan IO, Sayil I. Attitudes of medical students, general practitioners, teachers, and police officers toward suicide in a Turkish sample. Crisis 2008;29:173-179. https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910.29.4.173
  14. Hjelmeland H, Akotia CS, Owens V, Knizek BL, Nordvik H, Schroeder R, et al. Self-reported suicidal behavior and attitudes toward suicide and suicide prevention among psychology students in Ghana, Uganda, and Norway. Crisis 2008;29:20-31. https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910.29.1.20
  15. Seidlitz L, Duberstein PR, Cox C, Conwell Y. Attitudes of older people toward suicide and assisted suicide: an analysis of Gallup Poll findings. J Am Geriatr Soc 1995;43:993-998. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.1995.tb05563.x
  16. Domino G, Cohen A, Gonzalez R. Jewish and Christian attitudes on suicide. J Relig Health 1981;20:201-207. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01561181
  17. Domino G. Attitudes toward physician assisted suicide: Poland and the United States. Omega (Westport) 2002-2003;46:105-115.
  18. Renberg ES, Jacobsson L. Development of a questionnaire on attitudes towards suicide (ATTS) and its application in a Swedish population. Suicide Life Threat Behav 2003;33:52-64. https://doi.org/10.1521/suli.33.1.52.22784
  19. Renberg ES, Hjelmeland H, Koposov R. Building models for the relationship between attitudes toward suicide and suicidal behavior: based on data from general population surveys in Sweden, Norway, and Russia. Suicide Life Threat Behav 2008;38:661-675. https://doi.org/10.1521/suli.2008.38.6.661
  20. Kodaka M, Inagaki M, Yamada M. Factors associated with attitudes toward suicide: among Japanese pharmacists participating in the Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacy Specialist Seminar. Crisis 2013;34:420-427. https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000219
  21. Kodaka M, Postuvan V, Inagaki M, Yamada M. A systematic review of scales that measure attitudes toward suicide. Int J Soc Psychiatry 2011;57:338-361. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764009357399
  22. Park JI, Kim YJ. Factor structure of Korean version of attitudes toward suicide (ATTS-20). Ment Health Soc Work 2014;42:92-114.
  23. Dinno A. Implementing Horn's parallel analysis for principal component analysis and factor analysis. Stata J 2009:9:291-298.
  24. Horn JL. A rationale and test for the number of factors in factor analysis. Psychometrika 1965;30:179-185. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289447
  25. Glorfeld LW. An improvement on Horn's parallel analysis methodology for selecting the correct number of factors to retain. Educ Psychol Meas 1995;55:377-393. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164495055003002
  26. Kim K, Park JI. Attitudes toward suicide among college students in South Korea and the United States. Int J Ment Health Syst 2014;8:17. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-4458-8-17
  27. OECD [homepage on the Internet]. OECD Health Statistics 2016. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [updated 2016 June 30; cited 2016 July 28]. Available from: http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-data.htm/.
  28. Portzky G, Audenaert K, van Heeringen K. Adjustment disorder and the course of the suicidal process in adolescents. J Affect Disord 2005;87:265-270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2005.04.009
  29. Kwon SY. Well-being and spirituality from a Korean perspective: Based on the study of culture and subjective well-being. Pastoral Psychology 2008;56:573-584. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-008-0134-1