Självmord - acceptabelt eller förkastligt?
En studie av attityder till självmord i Moskva.
Suicide research has a long tradition within sociology. Parallel to the Durkheimian tradition, seeking the causes of suicide in societal factors, a more cultural understanding of suicide has been emphasized. Attitudes to suicide have been stressed as important for the understanding of suicide mortality levels in different societies. For Russia, where suicide mortality levels are among the highest in the world, an understanding of this kind might be of particular importance.Based on a survey study from Moscow 2004, attitudes to suicide were studied in relation to social, economic and demographic factors as well as to attitudes to other morally disputable behaviors. Suicide attitudes in different age and sex groups in the sample were further compared to suicide mortality levels in the corresponding groups in the population. Similarly to previous studies the young, the highly educated and the non-religious were more accepting towards suicide. Among the young and highly educated this seemed to be explained by a more accepting attitude generally towards morally disputable behaviors. However, controlling for these other attitudes a positive effect of lower education on suicide acceptability appeared. Differences in suicide attitudes between the genders seemed to be dependent on differences in other factors rather that on gender per se.The comparison between suicide attitudes and suicide mortality levels in different groups showed no positive relations. Suicide mortality is probably more affected by social, economic and demographic factors. However, attitudes to suicide might be crucial to whether a person commits suicide in a given situation or not. An increased understanding of attitudes to suicide in Russia might therefore be of major importance.