Relationship of internal-external control and United States suicide rates, 1973–1976

Related annual variations in United States suicide rates between 1973 and 1976 to the concomitant annual variations in internal external (I-E) control scores obtained from a representative sample of the United States population. High scores indicated perceptions of external control. As predicted, I-E scores were correlated significantly with the increasing suicide rate of the total United States population and increased significantly for persons in the (15--24 and 25--34 year) age groups that displayed substantial linear increases in suicide rates, but did not increase significantly for Ss in the remaining age groups (which showed slight decreases in suicide rates). I-E scores were correlated significantly with the suicide rates of the other two (65--74, and 75--84 year) age groups that showed a linear decrease or substantial nonlinear fluctuation in suicide rates. Thus, linear or substantial nonlinear variations in suicide rates always were associated with corresponding variations in perceptions of external control.