Attitudes toward Suicide and Conservatism: A Comparison of Chinese and United States Samples

Abstract

The Suicide Opinion Questionnaire and the Conservatism Scale were administered to two samples of respondents: seventy-three mainland Chinese adults and seventy-three United States adults of comparable age, gender, and socioeconomic level. The results indicated significant mean differences on all eight SOQ scales and on Conservatism. Chinese mean scores reflected higher agreement on the SOQ scales of mental illness, cry for help, and aggression, and higher disagreement on the right to die, religion, impulsivity, normality, and moral evil scales. Chinese scored in the more conservative direction, but in both samples the pattern of correlations between conservatism and SOQ scales was highly similar.