South Asians and suicide: Beliefs about suicide in a U.S. community sample.

Research from the United Kingdom has suggested differential risk factors for suicide among South Asians when compared with the general population. Studies in the United Kingdom have found higher risk related to gender, marital status, and religion. It has been unknown how such demographic variables, acculturative stress, and lower rates of help-seeking influence rates of suicide among South Asians in the United States. In this study, a community sample of South Asians in the United States (n = 524) were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire and validated measures for levels of acculturation, help-seeking, and beliefs about reasons for living via web-based survey. South Asians' scores on the Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL) were significantly higher than the normative population across all subscales except the Survival and Coping Beliefs subscales. Demographic variables significantly related to RFL scores included gender (men with higher RFL scores), age (younger individuals with lower RFL scores), country of origin (those from India with lower RFL scores), education level (lower RFL scores in those with higher education levels), and income (those with lower incomes having lower RFL scores). Help-seeking attitudes were also significantly related to RFL scores. As a whole, the findings are consistent with U.K.-based studies and provide valuable comparative data on a U.S.-based sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

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