Age, Gender, and Suicide: A Cross-National Analysis

Since the nineteenth century, social scientists have been unable to explain age and gender differentials in the risk of suicide. Almost universally, men have a greater risk of suicide than women. Furthermore, in economically developed countries, the risk tends to be highest for men in old age and for women in middle age. Age patterns of suicide in some Third World countries are fundamentally different than this. I test an interdisciplinary theory that focuses on role identities, economic development, and kinship institutions to account for these patterns.