Families, Socioeconomic Status, and Suicide: Combined Effects on Mortality

Justin T. Denney, Rice University

Both family support systems and advantaged socioeconomic status (SES) inhibit the risk of death. Independently, these factors are particularly salient for suicide, but it is less clear how they combine to affect mortality. Using National Health Interview Survey data from 1986 to 2004 (N = 1,306,100), prospectively linked to mortality through 2006, reveals a process of compensation in the way work status and family combine to affect suicide: unemployed individuals experience more suicide protection from family support systems than do employed ones. But a process of reinforcement occurs in the combined effects of education and family: the more highly educated experience more protection from the family than do less educated persons. Both pathways hold most strongly for men and younger persons. The findings demonstrate how families and SES may combine to affect mortality in unique ways.