TRENDS IN WHITE MALE-ADOLESCENT, YOUNG-ADULT, AND ELDERLY SUICIDE - ARE THERE COMMON UNDERLYING STRUCTURAL FACTORS

Disaggregation of suicide trends by age, sex, and race reveals that, s ince World War II, the most dramatic changes have occurred among white males at the adolescent, young adult, and elderly ages. This study ut ilizes social indicator time series regression models to determine if these trends are differentially affected by underlying structural fact ors. Structural factors, identified through application of Durkheimian anomie and social disintegration theses, include trends in economic s tatus, marital status, household composition, government support progr ams, and cohort size. Findings indicate that (1) changes in family str ucture and relative cohort size contribute to the variation in the ado lescent and young-adult white male suicide trends; (2) the suicide tre nds of the young-old white male population are associated with trends in elderly widowhood, Social Security benefits, and elderly cohort siz e; and (3) none of the social indicators included in this analysis exp lains the suicide trends among the old-old white male population. Ther efore, these population subgroups are differentially affected through structural factors which are variably salient for specific groups at d ifferent stages in the life course. (c) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.