IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i23p15606-d982746.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic Development and Gender Ratio Change in Chinese Suicide Rates (1990–2017)

Author

Listed:
  • Jie Zhang

    (School of Public Health, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
    Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Buffalo State, Buffalo, NY 14222, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Juncheng Lyu

    (School of Public Health, Weifang Medical University, Weifang 261053, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Dorian A. Lamis

    (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30307, USA)

Abstract

Objective : The overall gender ratio in Chinese suicide rates has substantially changed during the past three decades. In this study, we investigated the social economic factors and the mechanisms that may be contributing to this fluctuation. Study Design : This is a secondary analysis using suicide mortality data from the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Methods : A statistical model was performed with province as the unit of analysis. The per capita GDP and income of each provincial-level region were collected from the Economic and Statistical Yearbook. Rate and ratio were used to describe the trend of variations, and correlation analyses were conducted to examine the association between economic development and gender ratio change. Results : The China overall male to female gender ratio of suicide rates increased as the GDP per capita grew (r = 0.439; p = 0.015). The gender ratio changed from 0.88 in 1990 to 1.56 in 2017, with the reversion point between 1995 and 2000. The most radical reverse changes in the gender ratios were found in large municipalities. Conclusions : Cultural and social economic variables may explain the gender ratio changes. Increased economic development has significantly reduced psychological strains on rural young women, which in turn decreased the suicide rate among this sub-population.

Suggested Citation

  • Jie Zhang & Juncheng Lyu & Dorian A. Lamis, 2022. "Economic Development and Gender Ratio Change in Chinese Suicide Rates (1990–2017)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-8, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:15606-:d:982746
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15606/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15606/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pak, Tae-Young & Choung, Youngjoo, 2020. "Relative deprivation and suicide risk in South Korea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pak, Tae-Young, 2023. "Relative deprivation and financial risk taking✰," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PA).
    2. Haar, Jarrod & O'Kane, Conor, 2022. "A post-lockdown study of burnout risk amongst New Zealand essential workers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    3. Stark, Oded, 2021. "An optimal split of school classes," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 668-675.
    4. Claveria, Oscar, 2022. "Global economic uncertainty and suicide: Worldwide evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    5. Oscar Claveria, 2022. "“Modelling the dynamic interaction between economic uncertainty, growth, unemployment and suicide”," AQR Working Papers 202206, University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group, revised Jun 2022.
    6. Pak, Tae-Young & Babiarz, Patryk, 2022. "Relative Deprivation and Prosocial Behavior: Evidence from South Korea," MPRA Paper 115720, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Oded Stark & Wiktor Budzinski, 2021. "A social‐psychological reconstruction of Amartya Sen’s measures of inequality and social welfare," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(4), pages 552-566, November.
    8. Stark, Oded, 2021. "Why reducing relative deprivation but not reducing income inequality might bring down COVID-19 infections," Journal of Government and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(C).
    9. Peng Peng & Hui Mao, 2023. "The Effect of Digital Financial Inclusion on Relative Poverty Among Urban Households: A Case Study on China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 165(2), pages 377-407, January.
    10. Sungik Kang & Hosung Woo & Ja-Hoon Koo, 2021. "Precarious Suicide Behavior According to Housing Price Gap: A Case Study on South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-15, September.
    11. Fawaz, Yarine & Lee, Junhee, 2022. "Rank comparisons amongst teenagers and suicidal ideation," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:15606-:d:982746. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.