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Cited by 132Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesEmile Durkheim and SociologyHomicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse

Adolescents under Pressure: A New Durkheimian Framework for Understanding Adolescent Suicide in a Cohesive Community

Mueller, Anna S., Abrutyn, Seth·2016·American Sociological Review
DOI 10.1177/0003122416663464
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Abstract

Despite the profound impact Durkheim’s Suicide has had on the social sciences, several enduring issues limit the utility of his insights. With this study, we offer a new Durkheimian framework for understanding suicide that addresses these problems. We seek to understand how high levels of integration and regulation may shape suicide in modern societies. We draw on an in-depth, qualitative case study ( N = 110) of a cohesive community with a serious adolescent suicide problem to demonstrate the utility of our approach. Our case study illustrates how the lives of adolescents in this highly integrated community are intensely regulated by the local culture, which emphasizes academic achievement. Additionally, the town’s cohesive social networks facilitate the spread of information, amplify the visibility of actions and attitudes, and increase the potential for swift sanctions. This combination of cultural and structural factors generates intense emotional reactions to the prospect of failure among adolescents and an unwillingness to seek psychological help for adolescents’ mental health problems among both parents and youth. Ultimately, this case illustrates (1) how high levels of integration and regulation within a social group can render individuals vulnerable to suicide and (2) how sociological research can provide meaningful and unique insights into suicide prevention.

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Crossref · 10.1177/0003122416663464

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79 of 79 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Fear of failure, imagining or anticipating failure, and actual failure all lead to shame.

    “Third, fear of failure, imagining or anticipating failure, and actual failure all lead to the same thing: shame (Abrutyn and Mueller, 2016; Mueller and Abrutyn, 2016).”

    From The Social Roots of Suicide: Theorizing How the External Social World Matters to Suicide and Suicide Prevention (2021) · cites this paper as Mueller and Abrutyn, 2016

  • Identification with perceived and socially legitimated motives for suicide may increase youth's vulnerability and may explain why suicide clusters form and persist.

    “Though more research is necessary on this (for some promising studies, linking attitudes to suicide see Gould et al., 2014; Phillips and Luth, 2018), this study suggests that identification with perceived and socially legitimated motives for suicide may increase youth’s vulnerability to suicide and may be one explanation for why suicide clusters form and persist (Mueller and Abrutyn, 2016; Mueller”

    From The Social Roots of Suicide: Theorizing How the External Social World Matters to Suicide and Suicide Prevention (2021) · cites this paper as Mueller and Abrutyn, 2016

  • Poplar Grove youth internalized a clear, rigid, coherent sense of what was expected of the 'typical' Poplar Grove youth.

    “Returning, then, to the study of Poplar Grove, youth in this community did indeed internalized a very clear, rigid, coherent sense of what was expected of the “typical” Poplar Grove youth (Mueller and Abrutyn, 2016; Mueller, 2017).”

    From The Social Roots of Suicide: Theorizing How the External Social World Matters to Suicide and Suicide Prevention (2021) · cites this paper as Mueller and Abrutyn, 2016

  • Intensifying connectedness in schools with harmful youth cultures may amplify the harmful culture or undermine positive cultural interventions.

    “Schools that house harmful youth cultures may find that intensifying connectedness, even when combined with positive mental health messaging, may, at worst, amplify their harmful culture or, at best, find that the unaddressed harmful culture undermines any positive cultural interventions (Mueller and Abrutyn, 2016).”

    From The Social Roots of Suicide: Theorizing How the External Social World Matters to Suicide and Suicide Prevention (2021) · cites this paper as Mueller and Abrutyn, 2016

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Authors
Mueller, A. S., & Abrutyn, S.
Affiliations
  • University of Chicago (US)
  • University of Memphis (US)
Corresponding author
Mueller, Anna S.
ORCID
Venue
American Sociological Review
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2016-09-20
Volume
81
Issue
5
Pages
877-899
ISSN
  • 0003-1224 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-8271
DOI
10.1177/0003122416663464
OpenAlex
W2514400501
Cited by
132
References
79
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 6
FWCI
12.51
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
American Sociological Review (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Emile Durkheim and Sociology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse
Keywords
adolescent suicide, social integration, social regulation, social networks, academic achievement pressure, local culture, help-seeking barriers, suicide prevention, parental attitudes, mental health stigma

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