1997-中国人群自杀性别差异-The-gender-difference-in-Chinese-suicide-rates.pdf

Archives of Suicide Research 3: 81–89, 1997. c 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Article The gender difference in Chinese suicide rates ZHAO XIONG HE1 DAVID LESTER2 1Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, 30 Xin Zhu Road, Nanning, Guangxi, China 530022; 2 Center for the Study of Suicide, Blackwood, NJ, U.S.A. Accepted 1 May 1996 Abstract. Chinese women have a higher rate of suicide than Chinese men in the regions of mainland China currently reporting mortality data to the World Health Organization. This gender difference is documented, and possible reasons for the gender differences are explored using data from a survey of female suicides in Chuanzhou County in the Guangxi region of China. A definitive explanation for the gender difference must await detailed psychological autopsy studies. Key words: China, gender differences, suicide rates Introduction In China, females have higher suicide rates than do men. In contrast, in almost all other nations, men have higher rates of suicide, though in some nations the female suicide rate has been rising in recent years. This paper explores the reasons for the high suicide rate in Chinese women and discusses whether female liberation is partly responsible for this gender difference. Lester (1982) noted that the ratio of the male to the female suicide rate in 1975 varied over the regions of the world: in South American nations the mean was 3.45, Eastern Europe 3.22, North America 2.70, Middle America and the Caribbean 2.66, Europe 2.21, the Pacific 2.01, the Middle East 1.67 and Western Asia 1.35. There has been no plausible explanation of the low ratio for Asian nations, and the present data on China will show that the Chinese ratio for suicide rates is perhaps only an extension of this generally low Asian rate. Lester also found that the age distribution of male and female suicide rates differed. For men in nations at every level of