Ethnicity and Suicide: Considerations for Researchers, Interventionists, and Teachers

Reviews the book, Suicide among racial and ethnic minority groups: Theory, research, and practice edited by Frederick T. L. Leong and Mark M. Leach (see record 2007-16763-000). Worldwide suicide rates are increasing tremendously. If we wish to address this staggering and increasing mental health threat, the cultural context in which suicides occur urgently needs to be clarified. In this book, editors Frederick Leong and Mark Leach provide an updated description of this context within American minority groups that will be useful for clinicians, researchers, and students of suicide within and outside the mental health professions. While admitting from the onset that significant additional research is needed to isolate those cultural factors most relevant to suicide prevention, the editors have produced a book that can serve as the benchmark against which future progress in this field can be measured. This book serves to highlight the shortcomings in the body of knowledge about ethnic-minority individuals in Western culture. Much of what we know about the psychology of humans is based on findings from middle-class Caucasian individuals. When cultural groups are studied, the brush strokes are often broad, with little appreciation of the variability within groups. Culture is frequently seen as a “nuisance” variable, adding error instead of information. Meaningful research with ethnic-minority populations is difficult because of an absence of appreciation for the viewpoint of individuals inside the culture and a mistrust of outsiders, who, too frequently, use the minority community for academic ends while giving little back. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)