Religious Homogeneity and Metropolitan Suicide Rates

Abstract

Numerous studies have examined the relationships between religious factors and aggregate suicide rates with inconsistent findings. We extend research on this topic by focusing on an overlooked variable: religious homogeneity or the extent to which community residents adhere to a single religion or a small number of faiths. After developing a series of arguments linking religious homogeneity with lower suicide rates we investigate this relationship using 1980 data on 296 SMSAs. As hypothesized religious homogeneity is inversely associated with suicide rates; its estimated effects are greater than those of the other religious variables that are widely used in studies of suicide -percent Catholic and church member rates -- and they persist despite controls for established covariates of suicide rates. On closer inspection we find regional differences in the apparent influence of religious homogeneity. Protective effects are strongest in the SMSAs of the Northeast and they also surface in the South while they are weaker in other areas of the US. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings and by outlining a number of fruitful directions for future research on the religion-suicide connection. (authors)

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