Testing the Theory of Status Integration and Suicide Rates

Consistent with the theory there is a substantial inverse relation among age groups of U.S. white women between the official suicide rate and a simultaneous measure of three dimensions of status integration (marital parental and labor force). Further analysis indicates that the present test and all previous tests underestimate the theorys predictive accuracy. The underestimation stems from incomplete tests in which several dimensions of status integration are ignored; and only one procedure appears appropriate for the measurement of two or more dimensions considered together. The study shows that when the three status families--marital parental and labor force--are cross-classified the resulting simultaneous measure of integration explains four times as much variance in the suicide rate as does any of the three considered separately and nearly twice that explained by any version of various composite measures (e.g. simple addition of the three component measures). (EXCERPT)