Suicide rate spikes for middle aged white men without college degrees:
WASHINGTON - Suicide rates for middle-aged people are edging up - particularly for white men without college degrees, U.S. researchers said Monday.Middle-aged people usually have a relatively low risk for suicide, but baby boomers are bucking this trend, according to sociologists Julie Phillips of Rutgers University and Ellen Idler of Emory University.
"If these trends continue, they are cause for concern," they wrote in the journal Public Health Reports.
The period they studied preceded the most recent economic crisis, but the researchers suggested poor health and a bad economy may be driving the increase.
The suicide rate for men age 40 to 49 was 21.8 per 100,000 in 1979 and had risen to 25 per 100,000 by 2005. For men 50 to 59, it was 23.9 in 1979, fell to 20.4 per 100,000 in 1999 and rose again to nearly 23.8 in 2005.
For women it was much lower - 7.8 per 100,000 in 2005 for women age 40 to 49.
As other studies have shown, unmarried middle-aged men were 3.5 times as likely to commit suicide as married middle-aged men.
Comments (5)
As other studies have shown, unmarried middle-aged men were 3.5 times as likely to commit suicide as married middle-aged men.
This does not surprise me in the least. Chances are that a middle-aged man who isn't married is either (a) gay, (b) divorced and unhappy about it, or (c) never-married because of some impediment, such as physical disability, unattractiveness, or mental-health problems. All three groups of adults, regardless of age or gender, tend to feel unloved or at least lonely. So, suicide among them is more common than among those who are none of the above.
What keeps me from such a fate is my relationship with God, which ensures that my relationships with people are better than they would otherwise be. But in an ever-more secular society, fewer men are like that than in the past.
Posted by Michael Liccione | October 4, 2010 12:08 PM
It doesn't seem to say if the men are single or in relationships, which I imagine would be important factor.
Is it middle aged men across the board or just lonely single men? Is it the same with men who say they "don't believe in marriage" (whatever that means) or "its just a piece of paper" hence it isn't important to them or is it mainly with men who want to get married but can't find a partner.
I know you don't have the answers to these questions but it would be interesting to find out.
Posted by The Phantom Blogger | October 4, 2010 1:05 PM
I am quite certain that the percentage of single men in this category is higher than it has ever been. There are several reasons for this, as I see it:
1. First, with respect to jobs, it is much more difficult today for ordinary men of ordinary talents and abilities to find and keep good-paying employment. To make money today, a man has to be exceptional in both talent and ambition, preferably lacking common scruples.
2. Second, our ultra-promiscuous culture has the same effect on men that polygamy has on men: a minority of "alpha" males end up sexually possessing the majority of women (at one time or another, not necessarily simultaneously). Which, of course, leaves men perceived as less attractive, less educated, less ambitious, and less masculine without much in the way of wholesome marriage prospects. By the time women decide to stop being sexually used by "alphas" and to settle for "betas", the "betas" have given up on the idea of marriage.
3. Men themselves have bought into the cultural rot and willingly participate in it. This is a generation of men lacking the faith (as you mentioned), morality, and disciplined habits necessary to get through rough times. In a sense, I view the current predicament of men as a general chastisement.
Posted by Jeff Culbreath | October 4, 2010 1:23 PM
Jeff, I'm sure that developments in economics and sexual mores have something to do with the problem, but I think a more fundamental problem is our society's individualistic ideology.
Marriage itself is now seen by most people as a means of individual self-fulfillment. Or I should say, two individuals seeking self-fulfillment by means of each other and, in some cases, children. That guarantees a high rate of divorce, which is what we've had since the 1960s. Women have bought into that vision more than men, and that's an important reason why women initiate at least two-thirds of divorces. Being "out of love" is seen as a good reason not to love. Men suffer from the results more than women because the latter, being usually more oriented to relationships, generally have other sorts of relationship to sustain them.
Even more fundamental, though, is the liberal ideology of radical autonomy, which is shared by the Right in this country as much as by the Left. Among the former it takes the form of "rugged individualism" and economic freedom; among the latter, defining for oneself what sexuality and marriage mean. The disagreement between Right and Left is generally over the means of securing the interests of the autonomous individual. But the problem is the very idea of such an individual.
Posted by Michael Liccione | October 4, 2010 2:13 PM
For women it was much lower
Any numbers on how many of these men were henpecked?
Posted by william luse | October 4, 2010 4:14 PM