Suicide Scripts in Italian Newspapers

Abstract

Abstract. Background: There is substantial variability, by culture, in suicide rates, and also in suicide beliefs and attitudes. Suicide beliefs and attitudes predict actual suicidality. They also are elements of cultural scripts of suicide. Most suicide-scripts research has been conducted in Anglophone countries. Aims: This study investigates women’s and men’s suicide scripts in Italy. Methods: Italy’s suicide scripts, including beliefs about what causes suicide, were explored via analyses of newspaper stories ( N = 923) of women’s and men’s suicides. Results: Italian newspapers mostly featured men’s suicide stories, consistent with Italian men’s higher suicide mortality. Women’s suicide was narrated as an unexpected act signaling personal (e.g., emotional and private-relationship) problems. By contrast, men’s suicide was framed as relatively understandable response to serious public-life/social adversities (e.g., an economic downturn), and as a death of legitimate despair. Limitations: Social media suicide stories were not included in this study. Conclusion: In Italy, as in several countries with higher male suicide mortality, female suicide is psychologized and considered irrational while male suicide is viewed as a symptom of serious public-life/social problems, and therefore as deserving respect and empathy. The preference for social explanations of male suicide, together with the empathic attitudes, may contribute to male suicide being relatively more permissible and less stigmatized, and therefore also to men’s higher suicide mortality.