Thesis advisor: Thanh V. Tran / Suicide is an escalating public health crisis for Black people in the United States, yet the majority of the suicide research in the United States is based on the European American population. The psychological impact of the centuries of persistent stress and pain Black Americans have endured in the U.S., fueled by racism since the tragic period of slavery, is well-documented. However, despite the unrelenting historical and contemporary manifestations of racism and other systems of oppression in U.S. society, Black Americans have chosen death by suicide at rates lower than White Americans. Previous research has established the complexity of suicide and revealed that there are multiple personal and societal stress factors that contribute to creating risk factors for Black suicide. Research has also established that Black Americans historically have cultivated a resistance to the desire to take their own lives, seemingly linked to religious/spiritual and cultural coping resources that have served as a protective factor against suicidal behavior. Yet, there is a lack of scholarship that explores the impact of these resources on suicide in this population. Suicidologists are calling for suicide to be examined within a multidimensional contextual framework and for there to be a shift from a deficit approach to a strengths-based approach. There is a need for greater research focus on the factors that influence suicidal behavior in Black Americans, as well as the factors that are associated with creating a shield of protection against this self-destructive behavior. Through a convergent mixed-method approach, and guided by a robust cluster of theories, with Critical Race Theory and the Afrocentric Worldview as the overarching theoretical and philosophical approaches, this dissertation aims to address the gaps in the literature by examining several research questions. The following questions are examined through quantitative research: (1) Do racial discrimination and personal stress influence suicide attempts among Black people in the U.S., and does religion/spirituality serve as a protective factor and moderate the relationship between attempted suicide and racial discrimination and personal stress?; (2) Do post-incarceration status and personal stress influence suicide attempts among Black people in the U.S., and does religion/spirituality serve as a protective factor and moderate the relationship between attempted suicide and post-incarceration and personal stress?; (3) Do veteran status and personal stress influence suicide attempts among Black people in the U.S., and does religion/spirituality serve as a protective factor and moderate the relationship between attempted suicide and veteran status and personal stress? The data for this study were drawn from the cross-sectional National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) III which covers April 2012-June 2013. Logistic regression was employed to analyze the data. The quantitative research explores the impact of personal and societal stressors on the mental health of Black people and the role of religion/spirituality in cultivating a healthy emotional and mental environment that insulates them from suicide. The qualitative data include interviews with three adult Black men from the researcher’s family across three generations. Through three generations of Black men from one family, this dissertation further aims to examine whether religion/spirituality is a protective factor insulating Black people in the U.S. from developing suicidal behavior as they navigate societal stress factors including racial discrimination, post-incarceration status, and veteran status and whether religion/spirituality as a protective factor is passed down intergenerationally. If so, it aims to explore whether there are any intergenerational patterns and/or differences in the utilization of religion/spirituality as a source of protection against developing suicidal behavior. Assessed together, the findings from the quantitative and the qualitative research underscore the potential impact of stress and societal stress factors on suicidal behavior among Black people. Specifically, the quantitative research shows an association between personal stress and societal stress factors including racial discrimination, post-incarceration status, veteran status, and suicide attempts. The quantitative research also underscores the complexity of the role of religion/spirituality as a protective factor, as the findings from the quantitative research show that religion/spirituality was not a buffer against suicide attempts for the participants in that study. The findings from the qualitative research reveal that religion/spirituality can serve as a buffer and illustrates religion/spirituality functioning as an extension of Afrocentric culture and serving as a protective shield enabling some Black people to resist the full psychological impact of personal and societal stressors. This dissertation provides the foundation for the broader work highlighted through this study encapsulated in the Ubuntu Relational Framework for the Study of Black Suicide, an Afrocentric framework I developed that emerged as a guide for exploring the risks and protective factors of Black suicide. The constructs of death consciousness and Divine consciousness emerged during the analysis of the qualitative research as a way of conceptualizing the influence of societal stressors and protective factors on suicidal behavior, and they are an expression of Afrocentric culture. This framework highlights the need to equally prioritize the concern of what animates Black people’s desire to live, which was illuminated through the qualitative research, along with the question of what factors make them at risk for cultivating a desire to die. It further attends to the need for social workers to address the conditions of the racist U.S. environment these factors are assessed within. This dissertation also includes my autoethnography which serves as an analytic review and critical analysis of key concepts related to the study of Black suicide. It is a resource for further grounding in the historical and contemporary context of the Black experience and the Afrocentric worldview incorporated in this work. Autoethnography is an epistemological site for exploring Divine consciousness and the role of religion/spirituality and culture passed down intergenerationally as a protective factor against suicidal behavior. It further outlines a methodology for employing spiritual and cultural resources and operationalizing spiritual resistance. Finally, this dissertation goes beyond identifying risk and protective factors for suicidal behavior in Black people. It outlines a structure for training social work clinicians and researchers in this Afrocentric framework that would expand social workers’ knowledge of African-centered social work, and a method appropriate for responding to this multidimensional mental health problem that requires a creative, culturally rich approach. The training includes a methodology for employing religious/spiritual and cultural resources that operationalizes spiritual resistance that will equip social workers for supporting Black people in developing a healthy holistic mental and social environment within an oppressive racist environment. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social work.

Thesis advisor: Sara Moorman / In this thesis, I investigate if there are regional differences in suicide acceptability attitudes in the United States and what might explain these differences, namely political views or religious beliefs. I examine four suicide attitudes from the 2018 General Social Survey: whether a person has the right to die by suicide due to an incurable disease; bankruptcy; dishonoring one’s family; or being tired of living and ready to die. I draw upon a number of theories that discuss how one’s environment can influence their attitudes and how individuals form their attitudes in general. An individual from New England was found to be more accepting of suicide than someone from another region, and individual-level political and religious views were somewhat able to explain one’s suicide acceptability attitudes. Overall, regional differences in suicide attitudes do exist, perhaps helpful for future research to better understand differences in suicide rates around the country. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

Police suicide has been a largely under-researched topic with a small number of quantitative studies- that limit the exploration of potential causals models in the literature. This restricts current scholarly explanations behind officer suicide, furtheradding barriers to adequate prevention and detection. This study was focused on possible explanations behind police suicide, using Zhang's strain theory of suicide and Joiner's interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide to explain the variables used in the model. Using a moderation model, the research question asked to what extent an officer's education level affects the relationship between levels of police officer misconduct and risk for suicide. This study used archival data collected in a national study on law enforcement officers, partially funded by the National Institute of Justice and published in 1997(N=412). Logistic regression was used to analyze significance of the model, ultimately being unable to detect significance between the variables, neither individually on an officer's risk for suicide (officer misconduct= p>.05; officer education= p>.05) nor combined as an interaction to an officer's risk for suicide (p>.05). Recommendations for future research include utilizing a research design that better controls officer risk for suicide by equally weighing suicidal and nonsuicidal groups of officers. This will allow for a researcher to more validly compare the influence of the variables by viewing the effect on both groups (suicidal vs. non-suicidal). Implications for social change include contributing to the under-researched literature base of police suicide, increasing awareness of police suicide through scholarly publication and presentations, and advocating for better educated officers.

L'enjeu de cette thèse est de définir ce que veut dire un suicide dans le monde militaire, de comprendre comment c'est un fait de gestion dans les armées et pourquoi il vaut mieux dire les choses afin de pouvoir mettre en place une véritable politique de prévention. Le tabou du non-dit de cette question dans les armées s’explique inconsciemment par le fait que chaque suicide d’un militaire vient contredire la fraternité d’arme que revendique l’armée comme étant son socle. / The aim of this thesis is to define what suicide means in the military world, to understand how it is a management fact in the armed forces and why it is better to express a matter in order to be able to implement a genuine prevention policy. The taboo of this unspoken issue in the armed forces is unconsciously explained by the fact that each suicide of a soldier is in contradiction with the arms’ brotherhood claimed by the army as its base.

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There is substantial evidence that suicidal behaviour is disproportionately observed among those with lower socioeconomic positions. Prior literature suggests that policy measures tackling severe socioeconomic deprivation may have impacts on decreasing the health gaps. Yet, little research has been conducted to examine the effects of social and welfare policies on suicidal behaviour and its inequality. This is in part because the understanding of the socioeconomic inequity in suicidal behaviour has been limited by the strong biological individualism, thereby overlooking the potential importance of social and welfare policies to tackle the population-level determinants of suicide. Using jurisdictional and temporal variations in social policies and patterns of suicide, this dissertation contributes to the literature by providing a summary of the current knowledge base of socioeconomic inequality in suicide and suicidal behaviour, identifying the knowledge gaps and future research questions, and adding novel evidence on the impacts of individual social policy and aggregate welfare generosity on suicide mortality and its inequality. In Chapter Two, consists of a scoping review of studies addressing socioeconomic inequalities in suicide and suicidal behaviour or the relationship between socioeconomic positions and different outcomes of suicidal behaviour in high-income countries with quality data. The literature is summarized to map the findings on the socioeconomic inequity in suicidal behaviour. The chapter concludes with an assessment of gaps in the current knowledge base and suggests a future research agenda. In Chapter Three, I examined whether relative welfare generosity in Canadian provinces is associated with overall suicide mortality and employment-based inequalities in suicide mortality by exploiting the provincial differences within Canada. In Chapter Four, I investigated the effects of two recent social pension reforms targeting older adults—Basic Old Age Pension (BOAP) and Basic Pension (BP)—implemented in South Korea on suicide mortality. Taken together, the findings of the dissertation contribute to the existing literature by mapping the relevant literature, identifying research gaps about socioeconomic inequalities in suicide, and suicidal behaviour, and examining the roles of social policy as a moderator of socioeconomic inequalities in suicide. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / There is substantial evidence that suicide and suicidal behaviour are disproportionately observed among those with lower socioeconomic positions. Prior literature suggests that policy measures tackling severe socioeconomic deprivation may have impacts on reducing health gaps. However, little research is conducted to examine what effects can be brought by social and welfare policies on suicidal behaviour. This dissertation contains three studies on socioeconomic inequality in suicide and suicidal behaviour and examines the impacts of socioeconomic policies and welfare generosity that may tackle inequality. The overarching aim of the dissertation is to advance our understandings of socioeconomic inequality in suicide and suicidal behaviour by providing a systematic analysis of socioeconomic inequality in suicide and suicidal behaviour and roles of social policy and welfare generosity on suicide and suicide inequality. The dissertation contributes to the literature by mapping the relevant literature, identifying research gaps about socioeconomic inequalities in suicide, and suicidal behaviour and demonstrate novel findings about the roles of social policy.

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This is a collection of two stories, one fiction and one non-fiction, in communication with one another. Both stories explore how trauma can transform a life. In "Tabula Rasa," Mena is unable to recall her past after being beaten and left for dead. She must choose whether to uncover her past or forget it and move forward with her life. Set in a town run by witches, Mena learns that both choices are dangerous. In "Eternal Second," the narrator recounts the aftermath of her husband's suicide. She explores how trauma invades all aspects of her life. In both stories, women must navigate a new life created by the destruction of the old one.

La suicidologie sera présentée comme une technologie de la société dont les principales opérations visent à articuler l'organisation qui la promeut aux pratiques sociales du contrôle et aux phénomènes qui lui servent de prétexte. On soutiendra que la suicidologie a fait disparaître le suicide en tant qu'objet d'étude et on exposera comment elle a rompu aussi bien avec la compréhension traditionnelle du suicide qu'avec la saisie phénoménologique immanente à la vie sociale. La suicidologie, en effet, est un ensemble d'opérations technoscientifiques d'intervention prenant après coup le nom et le statut de science ; par le développement de ses centres de prévention, elle est devenue une pratique d'intervention sociale et elle s'est aussi, par ses forums, constituée en réseau. Enfin, par son ONG, l'Association internationale de prévention du suicide (IASP), elle est bien intégrée dans une pratique non gouvernementale technico-institutionalisée de gestion de l'information et de réglementation concernant «la personne vulnérable à potentiel suicidaire» et ce, à l'échelle mondiale. Cet ensemble d'éléments en relation les uns avec les autres évoluent de telle façon que toute interaction de l'un des éléments avec les autres provoque une évolution de l'ensemble et que toute modification de l'ensemble se répercute sur chaque élément créant un processus de structuration et de changement propre à un système. Avec de tels outils innovateurs, la suicidologie prétend gérer le suicide au niveau local, national et international sans comprendre l'acte suicidaire, celui-ci étant réduit à une somme de souffrances qu'il est possible d'éviter comme le prône le fondateur américain de la suicidologie, Edwin Shneidman. Suivant en cela le modèle de la société thérapeutique américaine des années soixante, Shneidman a conduit des programmes d'éducation populaires sur les conduites à tenir en cas de suicide et des experts pour les implanter et les exporter. Ces outils de gestion agissent, au niveau du comportement individuel, pour transformer la mauvaise image qu'a de lui-même le suicidaire, en une image positive de «bien-être de soi-même » et, au niveau collectif, ils incitent au quotidien la collectivité à prendre en charge le souci de l'autre en procédant à la formation d'observateurs des conduites des gens de leurs milieux, observateurs capables d'alerter les thérapeutes et de «faire soigner». Cet objectif culturel de planification visant le « bien-être » en ce qui concerne la conduite humaine et ses aléas, d'abord soutenu par la politique sociale de l'État américain, est effectivement en train de se réaliser aujourd'hui, supporté qu'il est par le moyen des réseaux sociaux, technologiques et technocratiques dont dispose la suicidologie et cela non seulement aux États-Unis d'où la suicidologie provient, mais aussi dans tout pays où de telles pratiques thérapeutiques de gestion du comportement sont importées et s'implantent.