MARITAL-STATUS, ALCOHOL-ABUSE AND ATTEMPTED-SUICIDE - A LOGIT MODEL

Research on suicide and marital status has neglected the impact of alc ohol abuse. Given that nonmarried people are more apt to abuse alcohol than married people, the often cited relationship between low marital integration and suicide may either be spurious, or it may involve a c omplicated interaction between the two variables. Married individuals consume less alcohol than unmarried individuals, but within marriage a lcohol abuse does occur, and when it leads to family abuse it may trig ger suicide. Also, over the life course individuals experience stresso rs (e.g., unemployment, illness) that may influence alcohol abuse and suicide. The present study explores the causal linkage between marital status, alcohol abuse and suicide at the micro level, employing data from the Epidemiological Catchment Area surveys. Logistic regression r esults indicate that marital status affects the odds of attempting sui cide independent of indicators of alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse is, how ever, a better predictor of attempted suicide than marital status.