Latino suicide: Does religious contextual influence vary between Latino men and Latino women?

Abstract

Researchers have examined aggregate associations between religious contexts and suicide rates among religious denominations. Most early research examined this relationship among white Christians; more current research has examined black Christians. Though this research tradition was established by Emile Durkheim long ago, religious context’s relationship with suicide rates remains understudied among U.S. Latinos. Few studies examine suicide among this group; those that do compare U.S.-born and foreign-born Latinos (see Barranco 2016; Barranco and Harris 2019). Nevertheless, these studies overlook how the religious context—suicide rate relationship differs between U.S. Latino men and women. This study fills this gap by applying two competing theses to explain aggregate differences in suicide rates among Latino men and women. Results show that religious context differently impacts Latino men’s and women’s suicide rates, religious homogeneity is consistently associated with lower suicide rates for all Latinos, and Latinas benefit more from religious contexts than Latino men.