Cultural scripts of gender and suicide: an analysis on Italian newspapers_2021 International Society of Critical Health Psychology (ISCHP) Conference

Suicide beliefs and attitudes vary by culture and, often, also by the gender of the suicidal person, as related to dominant femininity/masculinity ideologies. Suicide attitudes, as components of the suicide script, describe and prescribe the conditions when suicide is potentially permissible, for whom, and via what method. Studies (mostly from Anglophone countries) show that suicide scripts act as models and impact suicide prevalence. This study explored cultural scripts of gender and suicide in a new setting, Italy, through an analysis of newspapers suicide stories. Suicide stories in 2009-2019 newspapers were identified. Analyses focused on the who (e.g., the sex of the suicide decedent), how (i.e., the method), and why (e.g., the presumed suicide-cause). A total of 748 male and 175 female suicide stories were identified. Men’s suicide stories focused on work or community roles. When men’s suicide was associated with physical illness, it was narrated as a dignified decision. Relationship motives typically involved jealousy or a break-up. Suicide-emulation concerns appeared only in men’s stories. Women’s suicide stories focused on their presumed psychological fragility and inadequacy. When relationship motives were mentioned, they typically involved lovesickness. This study documented differences in how men’s and women’s suicide are narrated in Italian newspapers. The more-positive (e.g., suicide as an agentic, powerful, and dignified response to external adversities) connotation of male suicide stories, relative to female suicide stories (e.g., suicide as a symptom of psychological weakness and inadequacy) may offer a key for understanding men’s higher suicide mortality