Suicide, gender and socio-economic factors: a panel study of 79 counties in the Slovak Republic
| Date | 27 September 2022 |
| Pages | 274-288 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-07-2022-0729 |
| Published date | 27 September 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Aggression,conflict & peace,Sociology,Gender studies,Gender violence,Political sociology,policy & social change,Social conflicts,War/peace |
| Author | Jakub Harman,Eva Rievajová |
Suicide, gender and socio-economic
factors: a panel study of 79 counties in the
Slovak Republic
Jakub Harman and Eva Rievajov
a
Abstract
Purpose –The purposeof this paper is to explore the relationship between suiciderates broken down by
genderand socio-economic factors in the Slovak Republic.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper uses paneldata of 79 counties of the Slovak Republic for
the period 1997–2019.Methodology used includes fixedeffects regression and sensitivityanalysis. Also,
regressionswith lagged variables are used.
Findings –The results show that per capita income and unemployment rate are associated with
increasedrisk of suicide rates for both genders.Economic growth is negatively correlatedand significant
only for women. Women’s participation in the labor market does not have a significant impact. Social
factors, such as divorce and fertility rate, have a significant effect on men but insignificant on women.
Strong faith is associatedwith increasing men’s suicide rates. Sensitivity analysisconfirmed the results.
This paper also examined the possibility of cumulation of the effects by using lagged variables.
Unemployment rate has a significant effect only in the simultaneous year and for men only. Per capita
income and economic growth have insignificant impact for both the genders. Divorce rate has a
significant positive relationship for men, if measured in the previous year. The fertility rate is negatively
correlated withthe suicide rate of women up to two years after the birth. Higher participationof women in
the labor markethas a positive relationship with men’s suicidesin the simultaneous year.
Research limitations/implications –Few limitations of this paperneed to be stated. First, the data are
not balanced,as data for some districts and years are missing. Also,it is possible to collect data only for a
maximum period of 29 years (as the Slovak Republic exists only from year 1993). Moreover, important
variables in suicideresearch, like alcohol consumption or drug use, are not collectedon the district level.
Therefore,poor data availability is putting barriersto research of this area in the Slovak Republic.Second,
there is a lack ofprevious studies in the Slovak Republic.According to the authors’ knowledge,this is the
first paper to deal with issue of suicides and socio-economic factors in the Slovak Republic; therefore,
some importantfactors of the Slovak Republic influencing the results of thispaper may be missed. Third,
limitations in the methodological approach might influence the paper. The lagged-variables approach
might require further methodological improvements and research like implementing a structural
regressionmodel.
Originality/value –According to knowledgeof the authors, this relationship hasnot yet been examined
in Slovakia. This providedspace for this paper. According to the informationpresented in this paper, it is
important to take individual economic and social circumstances into accountwhen developing suicide
prevention programs.The results of this paper may lead to useful guidelines for health policymakers,but
addressingthis issue certainly requires furtherresearch.
Keywords Gender, Suicide, Panel data, Social factors, Slovak republic, Economic factors
Paper type Research paper
1. Background
The topic of the relationship between suicides and the economic factors that cause them
has long been one of the leading topics of social economists. The work of the author
Durkheim (1897), in which the author created a classification of suicides according to
Jakub Harman and
Eva Rievajov
a are both
based at the Department of
Social Development and
Labour, University of
Economics in Bratislava,
Bratislava, Slovakia.
Received 5 July 2022
Revised 8 August 2022
7 September 2022
Accepted 7 September 2022
Declaration of interest
statement: The authors declare
that they have no known
competing financial interests or
personal relationships that
could have appeared to
influence the work reported
in this paper.
The contribution is the result of
the solution of the research
project VEGA number 1/0037/
20 “New challenges and
solutions for employment
growth in changing
socio-economic conditions.”
PAGE 274 jJOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, CONFLICTAND PEACE RESEARCH jVOL. 15 NO. 4 2023, pp. 274-288, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1759-6599 DOI 10.1108/JACPR-07-2022-0729
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