Sex, Gender Role Orientation, Gender Role Attitudes and Suicidal Thoughts in Three Generations: a General Population Study

This study investigated whether gender role orientation & gender role attitudes were related to the reporting of serious suicidal thoughts in 3 generations in a community sample. Subjects completed home interviews. The prevalence of serious suicide ideation was higher in early adulthood than in early & late middle age. In early adulthood, only gender was significantly related to ideation, with women at higher risk. In early middle age masculinity scores were negatively related to suicidal thoughts & more traditional views on gender roles were positively associated with suicidal thoughts. In late middle age trends were in the same direction as in early middle age, but were not statistically significant. Femininity scores were unrelated to serious suicide ideation at any age. (42 refs.) JA