To Compare is to Despair? A Population-Wide Study of Neighborhood Composition and Suicide in Stockholm

PWP-CCPR-2016-029

Abstract

The suicide risk associated with an individual attribute can depend on the context. Eight hypotheses about the interactions between neighborhood composition and ethnicity, income and socially disadvantaged propositions are proposed based on social support, social comparison and regulation mechanisms. They are tested with a population-based dataset of all 1.4 million adults who lived in the greater Stockholm area in the 1990s. Results from multilevel analyses show that the effects of socio-demographic characteristics on suicide vary with neighborhood composition. First, having more neighbors from the same region is found to reduce suicide risk among ethnic minorities. The protective effect, however, is limited to groups with low suicide rates in the home countries. Second, relative income matters more suicide than absolute income: a high average income in the neighborhood increases suicide risk, particularly among those with low income. This goes against the common belief that living in wealthy neighborhoods protects the poor from bad health outcomes. Income inequality does not have any effect on suicide once relative income is considered. Third, social welfare recipients have lower suicide risk when more of their neighbors are also social welfare recipients. The results suggest that the effects of neighborhood contexts on suicide can be positive or negative, depending on the individual. Such cross-level interactions contributed to the unstable macro-level results and are relevant to policy debates on rising income inequality and ethnic diversity in many societies.