Religious Homogeneity and Metropolitan Suicide Rates

Numerous studies have examined the relationships between religious factors and aggregate suicide rates, with inconsistent findings. We extend research on this topic by focusing on an overlooked variable: religious homogeneity, or the extent to which community residents adhere to a single religion or...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social forces 1997-09, Vol.76 (1), p.273-299
Main Authors: Ellison, Christopher G., Burr, Jeffrey A., McCall, Patricia L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attendance Patterns
Catholicism
Catholics
Church congregations
Church Membership
Church unions
Community Relations
Counties
Criminal sociology. Police. Delinquency. Deviance. Suicide
Divorce
Faith
Homogeneity
Integration
Metropolitan Areas
Orthodox Church
Protective effects
Protestantism
Rates
Regional Differences
Regionalization
Regions
Relationship
Religion
Religious aspects
Religious Factors
Religious participation
Religious pluralism
Researchers
Social Environment
Social Integration
Sociology
Sociology of law and criminology
Stark, Rodney
Suicidal behavior
Suicide
Suicide rates
Suicides & suicide attempts
Topic and comment
U.S.A
United States
Urban Affairs
USA
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Description
Summary:Numerous studies have examined the relationships between religious factors and aggregate suicide rates, with inconsistent findings. We extend research on this topic by focusing on an overlooked variable: religious homogeneity, or the extent to which community residents adhere to a single religion or a small number of faiths. After developing a series of arguments linking religious homogeneity with lower suicide rates, we investigate this relationship using 1980 data on 296 SMSAs. As hypothesized, religious homogeneity is inversely associated with suicide rates; its estimated effects are greater than those of the other religious variables that are widely used in studies of suicide - percent Catholic and church member rates - and they persist despite controls for established covariates of suicide rates. On closer inspection, we find regional differences in the apparent influence of religious homogeneity. Protective effects are strongest in the SMSAs of the Northeast, and they also surface in the South, while they are weaker in other areas of the U.S.
ISSN:0037-7732
1534-7605
DOI:10.1093/sf/76.1.273