Suicidal Ideation Risk and Socio-Cultural Factors in China: A Longitudinal Study on Social Media from 2010 to 2018

He Li, Yujin Han, Yunyu Xiao, Xingyun Liu, Ang Li and Tingshao Zhu
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He Li: Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Yujin Han: Department of Statistics, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
Yunyu Xiao: School of Social Work, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA
Xingyun Liu: School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Ang Li: Department of Psychology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
Tingshao Zhu: Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-12

Abstract: Many studies cited the importance of social factors as protective and risk factors for suicide. However, there is a lack of evidence on the influences of cultural and moral values. This study aims to examine the association between cultural values and suicidal ideation risks detected on an online social media platform. We collected a total of 5.1 billion pieces of Weibo posts from 2010 to 2018 to calculate their suicidal ideation risks as measured by psychache in the Chinese Suicide Dictionary. We calculated the word frequencies of cultural and moral values based on Cultural Value Dictionary and Moral Foundation Dictionary. We collected economic and population data from the China National Bureau of Statistics. Two-way fixed-effect models were performed to analyze the association between culture, economy, and population factors and suicidal ideation risks. The results confirm the relations between high suicidal ideation risk and public concerns of vice under the Chinese context such as harm ( β = 0.193, p < 0.01), betrayal ( β = 0.096, p < 0.01), and dirty ( β = 0.624, p < 0.001). In addition, extremely individualistic or collectivistic values of the public were associated with high suicidal ideation risks. The finding indicated the significant impact of social culture on suicide risk apart from the influence of the social economy and population characteristics. Our evidence informs population-based suicide prevention policymakers that incorporating cultural and moral values can help prevent suicidal ideation in China.

Keywords: suicidal ideation risk; socio-cultural; social media; word frequency; China; psychache; two-way fixed effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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