Black suicide and social support systems: an overview and some implications for mental health practitioners.

Abstract

PREVIOUS RESEARCH SUGGESTS that because of the insulting effect of poverty and low socioeconomic status, blacks should be least likely to commit suicide.' By and large, this is true. But black men aged 18 to 29 do not conform to this expectation. Although suicide is not a leading cause of death among blacks, it is the third leading cause of death (after accidents and homicides) among black males in the 18 to 29 year age group. Young black men in this age group are three to four times as likely to commit suicide as young black women of the same age.2 Young adult black males accounted for 27 percent of suicides among blacks nationally between 1970 and 1975, while young adult black females accounted for only 8.3 percent.3 The rate of suicide among young adult black men has risen over the past decade to the point of approximating and sometimes surpassing that of their white male cohorts, which is well above the national average. The rate of increase during the decade has been greatest among black males aged 20 to 24 (15 percent) and 25 to 29 (42 percent) .4 A striking increase in the incidence of suicide among black males for all but the oldest age groups can be clearly discerned in Table 1, which presents rates at five-year intervals for the thirty-year period 1947-1977. Within the 20-24 year age group the rate increased dramatically (195 percent), from 7.3 to 21.5 per 100,000. In the peak suicide age range of 25-29, the rate increased nearly 250 percent, from 8.2 to 28.5 per 100,000 black male population. Equally as dramatic is the 137 percent increase experienced by black males aged 30 to 34 (9.5 to 22.5).