Social Capital and Suicide in Iranian Provinces
Journal Title: Journal of Applied Sociology - Year 2021, Vol 32, Issue 3
Abstract
Introduction: Social capital is a complex and multifaceted structure or concept. Although it has become a pervasive subject in sociological texts; however, few studies have been conducted on its validity and explanatory value in the field of suicide. In the present study, the author tries to critically review the available resources, while presenting the results of researchers’ finding and their critique and to show the relationship between social capital and suicide in the provinces of Iran. In most studies, researchers have hypothesized that the relationship between social capital and suicide is positive, and in practice, they have found that with increasing and decreasing social capital, the rate of suicide fluctuates. However, there is no consensus on the impact of social capital on suicide in Iran. Some researchers have used suicide as an indicator to measure social capital and define the relationship between suicide and social capital (regardless of the causal relationship) to establish a structural relationship between these two concepts (Bastani et al., 2014; Mohammadian et al., 2016). The structural relationship between suicide and social capital emphasizes that the two concepts are strongly interdependent at the theoretical level, and the researcher does not need to distinguish between the two. Despite such a hypothetical link between the two concepts, some argue that social capital has conflicting effects on suicide. Given the above explanations, the lack of consensus on the type of the relationship between suicide and social capital, and the reverse effect of social capital on suicide, the following research question was posed in this study: What are the effects of social capital on the rate of suicide in Iranian provinces? Materials and Methods: The present study tries to explain the rate of suicide based on social capital from the perspective of relational, interpretive, and causal explanations. This comparative research compares the social units (the provinces) of the research. The statistical population includes all documentary data in at least 28 provinces of Iran. It is worth mentioning that there is no specific method for measuring the reliability and validity of social capital; however, the findings extracted and derived from statistical data are more dependable than the data gathered through the surveys and attitudes. Discussion of Results and Conclusions: The results of the study showed that social capital had no effect on the suicide rate and its components had different relationships with the suicide rate. Social participation based on family outcomes affected and reduced the suicide rate. However, at the survey level, severing ties with relatives reduced the suicide rate (a finding different from the statistical data). The political or civic participation presented in this study in the form of electoral participation also had a reducing effect on the suicide rate. But, at the level of triangulation, this effect was different and increased suicide. Security as another component of suicide had a reducing effect on suicide and decreased with increasing the security of suicide. The extent of the conflict, which was measured statistically, had an inverse relationship with the rate of suicide and with increasing the level of conflict in the provinces of Iran. Some components of social capital collected at the survey and attitude levels had an unreasonable relationship with the suicide rate. The components include: 1) desire to live abroad, 2) obtaining citizenship of other countries, 3) the degree of honor of Iran's foreign policy, 4) national identity (the composite structure), and 5) the extent of participation in the war by oneself and other people. If we want to draw the personality of the suicidal person based on the achievements of this research considering the independent variables, we can consider the suicidal person as a person who: 1. Has little social participation. He may have limited contact with relatives; 2. Cannot divorce or divorce his partner and cannot run away from his family; 3. Participates less in the elections. If he/she participates in elections, he/she casts a blank ballot; 4. Has self-doubt; 5. Trusts individuals and the system; 6. Is honest or at least is not a liar; 7. Does not feel safe; 8. Does not have enough energy for conflict; 9. Does not want to live abroad.
Authors and Affiliations
Abrahim Salehabadi * Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Payame Noor University, Iran Salehabadi@pnu. ac. ir
Keywords
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- EP ID EP704806
- DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.22108/jas.2021.121462.1868
- Views 78
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