IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v320y2023ics027795362300103x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Suicide among soldiers and social contagion effects: An interrupted time-series analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Arendt, Florian
  • Mestas, Manina

Abstract

Suicide has become an increasingly concerning problem among soldiers in recent years. Previous research has hypothesized that media-related social contagion effects, termed “Werther effects,” may contribute to military suicide numbers. Unfortunately, there is limited empirical knowledge on such social contagion effects in soldiers. We contribute to the literature by investigating this phenomenon in the context of a specific historical suicide case, allowing us to provide a longitudinal assessment: Crown Prince Rudolf, heir to the Imperial throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who died by suicide in January 1889. His death was a well-known news story that shook the monarchy to its foundations. Notably, soldiers of the late nineteenth century were an especially vulnerable portion of the population, proven by the fact that the Austro-Hungarian military had one of the highest suicide rates at the time compared to other European countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Arendt, Florian & Mestas, Manina, 2023. "Suicide among soldiers and social contagion effects: An interrupted time-series analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:320:y:2023:i:c:s027795362300103x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115747
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795362300103X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115747?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Braswell, Harold & Kushner, Howard I., 2012. "Suicide, social integration, and masculinity in the U.S. military," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(4), pages 530-536.
    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. Peng, Sihui & Yang, Xiaozhao Yousef & Rockett, Ian R.H., 2019. "A typology of social capital and its mixed blessing for suicidal ideation: A multilevel study of college students," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    2. Mueller, Anna S., 2017. "Does the media matter to suicide?: Examining the social dynamics surrounding media reporting on suicide in a suicide-prone community," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 152-159.
    3. Dabovich, Paula A. & Eliott, Jaklin A. & McFarlane, Alexander C., 2019. "Individuate and separate: Values and identity re-development during rehabilitation and transition in the Australian Army," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 265-273.

    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:eee:socmed:v:320:y:2023:i:c:s027795362300103x. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    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.