In 1897, sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote one of the first empirical studies of population health with his book Suicide. Over a hundred years later, students still learn about suicide and its causes from Durkheim. But in a recent study, Anna Mueller and Seth Abrutyn find that the type of suicide that Durkheim found least probable — fatalistic — is actually much more likely to happen today. While Durkheim concluded that suicide was more often caused by a lack of societal regulation or integration, Mueller and Abrutyn find that too much regulation or integration is just as likely to be a cause of suicide today.
To understand why people commit suicide today, the researchers chose a small, upper-middle class, primarily white community with an unusually high rate of teen suicide — Poplar Grove. They used Poplar Grove as a case study of the social causes of suicide, asking residents about the community’s culture and their own personal understandings of the causes of suicide. The researchers conducted interviews with 71 people who lost loved ones to suicide, as well as with 13 focus groups made up of residents from Poplar Grove. In addition, the interviews included responses from mental health professionals and school personnel, who could act as expert informants about why these teens may have taken their own lives.
After talking with numerous individuals from the Poplar Grove community, Mueller and Abrutyn concluded that the community’s intense, close-knit social ties created strong pressures for adolescents to conform to high standards of excellence in things like sports and academics. This environment had created a pressure-cooker that drove some teenagers to suicide. While many residents described a warm, caring community where “everybody knows everybody,” the darker side was that the close-knit environment made some people feel constantly under a microscope. Some respondents reported that the individuals they knew who committed suicide achieved great popularity and academic success, but that their support networks also pressured them to maintain appearances and be “ideal citizens.” In Durkheim’s terms, these high levels of social integration and moral regulation can create an environment conducive to “fatalistic” or “altruistic” suicides in which individuals commit suicide because they feel overwhelmed by the expectations of their tight-knit community. This is a troubling finding, and disrupts common assumptions that small towns and tight social networks are always and everywhere good for mental health and social relationships.
Comments 1
Will Liu — February 20, 2019
While reading the first paragraph of the passage "Fatalistic Suicide in a Tight-Knit Community," I started thinking about the discussion we learned in class, how sociology is always changing. Mueller and Abrutyn observed that fatalistic suicide is much more likely to happen in today's society than 100 years ago. Their interview really shocked me, because there were so many suicides in that small neighborhood alone. If that was on a nationwide scale, that would be a lot. I understand why many teens decide to end their life. School is very stressful no matter how talented or smart you are. Especially since they come from an upper-middle family, the teens are expected to show that they're the best. They probably were trying to be a well-rounded person trying to get into a good college or simply that they want to make their parents/guardians proud. But focusing on academics, sports, and other extracurricular activities at the same time is extremely difficult. From my own experience, high school was very hard for me, because unlike other people who just wanted to go to community/local universities, I took AP classes and joined many clubs so I could make my future better. That came with a cost though. I spent a great amount of time alone studying-away from friends, putting constant hours into academics and extracurriculars. So again, I understand the struggles the teens in Poplar Grove are going through.