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This study examines individual risk factors for adult suicide mortality in the United States. Fifteen consecutive years of the National Health Interview Survey (1986-2000) are linked to the Multiple Cause of Death file through the National Death Index (1986-2002) to examine how demographic, social, and health factors are related to the risk of suicide. Using Cox proportional hazard models, the results reveal that intact social relationships, household size, employment, and higher levels of education lessen the risk of suicide for the general population while controlling for confounding factors. The results further suggest both similar and unique social integrative processes for males and females. While larger household sizes reduce the risk of suicide for both males and females, the influence of marital status on suicide is gender specific. For men, divorce and widowhood increase the risk of suicide, yet these processes do not influence the risk of suicide for females. To date, this analysis inserts one of the most comprehensive investigations with national individual level data into the rich history of suicide research, a central cause of preventable death in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most work on the relation between race/ethnicity and lethal violence has focused on Black and white populations and the differences between them. This research has offered considerable insight into the ways that social disadvantage and other forces shape race-specific rates of violence. However, there is reason to believe that violence among other minority populations would be influenced by distinct structural, social, and cultural patterns. The Latino experience in the U.S., in particular, is shaped by high volume immigration and related assimilation issues, factors that are less central to the experience of Blacks, but which have been hypothesized to influence violence. Although Latinos represent the fastest growing minority population in the U.S., little is known about the characteristics and correlates of violence in this population. In the current project we use automated Police homicide data for the years 1995-2001 and U.S. Census data, to examine the role of structural and social contexts in shaping patterns of Latino and white homicide in Albuquerque, NM. We are particularly interested in how rates of immigration, assimilation, and disadvantage, independently and in conjunction with each other, influence these patterns. This research contributes to the theoretical and empirical literatures on ethnic/race-specific homicide in general and to the emerging literature on Latino homicide more specifically. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research examines the structural correlates of Hispanic suicide at the metropolitan level using recent Mortality Multiple Cause of Death Records and 2000 census data. We test competing hypotheses regarding the effects of immigration, assimilation, economic disadvantage, affluence, and ethnic inequality on suicide levels for Hispanics as a whole and disaggregated by immigrant status. The findings point to multiple forces and complex relationships among social structure, culture and Hispanic suicide. Additionally, the findings suggest that these factors have unique effects on native-born versus immigrant populations. This is the first study to examine the structural correlates of suicide among Hispanics and to assess the macro-level influence of immigration and cultural assimilation on ethnic-specific suicide. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wilson's deindustrialization thesis has been the focus of much recent research. This study is the first to empirically test his thesis as it relates to suicide, particularly among young black males. Suicide is currently the third leading cause of death for this population. Using 1998-2001 Mortality Multiple Cause-of-Death Records and 2000 census data, we examine the influence of concentrated disadvantage (and related characteristics) on suicide among young black males across U.S. cities. We also explore the extent to which industrial composition (the outcome of deindustrialization) affects concentrated disadvantage in black urban communities. We perform similar analyses for whites to compare and contrast potential explanatory processes. Our findings show that while disadvantage is related to suicide for both black and white young males, industrial composition only influences the structural covariates of suicide among blacks. These findings demonstrate the ability of Wilson's thesis to help explain a pressing social problem—young black male suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]