The Clustering and Contagion of Suicide
- 22 June 1999
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Current Directions in Psychological Science
- Vol. 8 (3), 89-92
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00021
Abstract
Two general types of suicide cluster have been discussed in the literature; roughly, these can be classified as mass clusters and point clusters. Mass clusters are media related, and the evidence for them is equivocal; point clusters are local phenomena, and these do appear to occur. Contagion has not been conceptually well developed nor empirically well supported as an explanation for suicide clusters. An alternative explanation for why suicides sometimes cluster is articulated: People who are vulnerable to suicide may cluster well before the occurrence of any overt suicidal stimulus, and when they experience severe negative events, including but not limited to the suicidal behavior of one member of the cluster, all members of the cluster are at increased risk for suicidality (a risk that may be offset by good social support).Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Media Influence on ParasuicideThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1995
- The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.Psychological Bulletin, 1995
- An Outbreak of Suicide and Suicidal Behavior in a High SchoolJournal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 1989
- Do weather, day of the week, and address affect the rate of attempted suicide in Hong Kong?Social psychiatry. Sozialpsychiatrie. Psychiatrie sociale, 1988
- Clustering of teenage suicides after television news stories about suicides: a reconsiderationAmerican Journal of Psychiatry, 1988
- Fictional depiction of suicide in television films and imitation effectsAmerican Journal of Psychiatry, 1988
- The Werther effect after television films: new evidence for an old hypothesisPsychological Medicine, 1988
- The Impact of Televised Movies about SuicideNew England Journal of Medicine, 1987
- Clustering of Teenage Suicides after Television News Stories about SuicideNew England Journal of Medicine, 1986
- A cluster of adolescent suicide attempts: Is suicide contagious?Journal of Adolescent Health Care, 1983