The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

534 Chapter 13

not account for the sex difference in suicide

rates entirely. Even within a given method,

suicide attempts are more likely to be fatal

among men compared to women.

Suicide rates are not as easy to estimate

as you might think. The official statistics on

suicide rates are likely to be underestimates

because some suicides are mistakenly classi-

fied as other causes of death. This misclassifi-

cation may lead to a greater underestimation

of female suicide because women are more

likely to use ambiguous methods, such as

poisoning. Men, by contrast, are more likely

to use guns; it is easier to determine that a

self-inflicted gunshot was a suicide.

Attempts

Although men commit suicide more fre-

quently than women, women are more likely

than men to attempt suicide and to express

more suicidal thoughts than men. This par-

adox holds across most Western societies.

A study of 15 European countries showed

that females are more likely than males to at-

tempt suicide in 14 of the countries and that

the highest rates are among 25- to 34-year-

olds (Platt et al., 1992). A more recent study

of adults across 17 countries showed that

women were more likely than men to report

suicidal thinking (Nock et al., 2008). Among

adolescents, females also report more sui-

cidal thinking and more suicide attempts

than males. A nationwide survey of ninth

through twelfth graders revealed that 8.1%

of girls and 4.6% of boys had attempted sui-

cide during the past year, with higher over-

all rates but similar sex ratios among Blacks

and Hispanics compared to Whites (Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010d).

Suicidal ideation was higher but the sex dif-

ference remained: 17% of females and 10% of

males reported seriously considering suicide

in the past year.

areas where levels of social support are lower,

and there are a large number of rural woman.

Although the rate of suicide for women is

not higher than men in India, the sex differ-

ence is smaller. An examination of the differ-

ent regions of India showed that regions in

which women have greater restrictions are

regions in which there was a relatively higher

rate of female to male suicide (Mitra &

Shroff, 2008).

One reason for the sex difference in sui-

cide rates is that men use more violent meth-

ods than women (Payne, Swami, & Stanistreet,

2008). Men are more likely to use guns and to

hang themselves, whereas women are more

likely to use poisons. However, the most com-

mon method of suicide for both women and

men is the use of a gun. Interestingly, more

deaths by gun are due to suicide than homi-

cide. However, the difference in methods does

TABLE 13.7 SEX DIFFERENCES IN SUICIDE

Nation Male–Female Suicide Ratio

Australia 3.8

Austria 3.22

Belize 8.38

Canada 3.20

Chile 5.12

China 0.88

Denmark 2.73

France 2.83

Germany 2.98

India 1.34

Ireland 4.58

Italy 3.54

Japan 2.61

Luxembourg 4.12

Mexico 5.23

New Zealand 3.00

Sweden 2.18

Thailand 3.16

United Kingdom 3.61

United States 3.93

Source: World Health Organization (2010a).

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