Marital status integration, suicide disapproval, and societal integration as explanations of marital status differences in female age-specific suicide rates.

Sociological analyses of suicide have often neglected female suicide rates. Three competing explanations are tested to determine why the suicide rates of married women are, typically, lower than the suicide rates of women who are not married: (1) marital status integration, (2) societal integration, and (3) a nation's normative order about disapproval of suicide. Data refer to age and marital status-specific female suicide rates from 12 developed countries. The results provide the strongest support for the marital status integration theory and consistent support for the social integration perspective. There is also mixed support for the cultural disapproval of suicide hypothesis.