By spending more time caring for their children or loved ones, and therefore spending less time at work, men could significantly reduce their risk of suicide, finds a study.
- In France, as in other countries, three quarters of deaths by suicide concern men. A link between the pressure felt at work has been established by previous studies.
- According to this new work from 20 countries, suicide rates are lower when men devote more time to family care.
- Spending time with family would allow men to diversify their sources of meaning and purpose, as well as their social capital and networks.
According to the latest report from the National Suicide Observatory, 8,580 deaths by suicide were recorded throughout France in 2016. 75% of deaths by suicide are men, i.e. 6,750 men who took their own lives in 2016. This excess male mortality is not a typically French phenomenon: it has been observed in most countries.
How to explain it? Much research has attempted to explain why men were three times more likely than women to commit suicide. Most thus establish a link between the mortality by suicide of men and the stress and the demands generated by their job, as well as their role as “economic provider”.
It is on the basis of this theory that researcher Silvia Sara Canetto, professor of psychology at Colorado State University, tried to explain the high rates of suicide among men. She concluded that suicide mortality among men is linked to their behavior in private life. Those who overinvest in their professional life but neglect the family domain are more vulnerable when their work is threatened or lost, which increases their risk of suicide. The results of the study have just been published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.
Family time protects men from suicide
To reach the conclusion that family care work prevents suicide risk in men, the researchers looked at rates of suicide, male family care and unemployment in 20 countries, including the United States, Austria, Belgium, Canada and Japan. They found that suicide rates were lower in countries where men reported more family care work.
In countries where men report more care work, higher unemployment rates are not associated with higher male suicide rates. In contrast, in countries where men report less time raising or caring for dependent children and adults, higher unemployment rates are associated with higher male suicide rates. On the other hand, unemployment benefits did not reduce suicide rates among men.
For Pre Canetto, these results show that spending more time caring for loved ones can protect men against suicide, especially in difficult economic times.
The urgency of reviewing prevention programs
How can this link between family care work and protection against suicide be explained? For the author of the study, caring for her children or dependent parents “would be a way for men to diversify their sources of meaning and goals, as well as their social capital and their networks”. Greater involvement of men in work at home would also benefit women, who would be partly relieved of their disproportionate burden of care, and would give children more resources, believes Professor Canetto, who points out that prevention programs against male suicide should integrate engagement support into family care work. “This means moving beyond the dominant frameworks of male suicide prevention with a focus on employment support.” But also “going beyond treating suicide as just a mental health issue to be addressed with ‘treatments'”concludes the researcher.
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