Normative dissonance and anomie: a prospective microlevel model of adolescent suicide ideation

This study constructs a unique prospective model of anomie and adolescent suicide ideation in order to test the two dominant sociological paradigms of suicide—(1) Durkheim’s theory of anomie and (2) suicide suggestion. This model looks at normative dissonance between the adolescent and the adolescent’s two social worlds, the family and the peer network, as sources of anomie. Normative dissonance is defined as conflicting norms and behaviors, such as smoking, academic aspirations, and religiosity. Baseline variables, including individual characteristics such as race, sex, and depression, as well as other variables that may be related to anomie, but not through the mechanism proposed in this paper are included in the full regression model. In 2001, suicide was the third leading causing of death among adolescents aged 10-19 years in the United States (CDC 2004(a)). In 2002, nearly 125,000 adolescents were taken to the hospital after an attempted suicide (CDC 2004(c)). Moreover, from 1970-93 the suicide rate among adolescents nearly doubled from 5.9 to 11.1 per 100,000 (US DHHS 2001) and has since decreased to 7.4 in 2002 (US DHHS 2004). Overall, there has been widespread concern regarding adolescent suicide, especially school-associated suicides. The CDC found that 25% of adoles-cents who committed suicide at school injured or killed someone else before committing suicide (CDC 2004(a)) and that 22% of students who carried out school shootings also killed themselves (CDC 2004(b)). Despite this increase in adolescent violence and suicides in schools, studies of adolescent suicide have largely adopted the theo-retical approaches developed for studying adult suicide. Within this broader area of suicide studies there are two dominant and competing sociological theories of suicide—Durkheim’s theory of social regulation and integration, established in Suicide (1897 [1997]), and suicide suggestion (Phillips 1974; Tarde 1903). This study seeks to resolve the debate between these two dominant sociological para-digms for understanding suicide within the specific context of adolescent suicide.