Religious involvement, suicidal ideation and behavior in mainland China.

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about relations between religious involvement and suicidal behaviors in mainland China. This study aims to examine the association between religious involvement and suicidal ideation, planning, and attempts within a general community population controlling for socio-demographic, physical, and mental health factors.

METHOD: Data were examined from a population-based sample of 2,769 community-dwelling adults in the province of Ningxia China, where nearly 40% are Muslim, 11% other religious affiliations, and 49% no religion. Four separate logistic regression models examined correlations between religious involvement and self-reported suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts. Analyses were also stratified by Muslim affiliation (n = 1103) and no religion (n = 1,366).

RESULTS: Bivariate analyses in the overall sample demonstrated that higher personal religiosity scores (χ(2) = 6.8, p < 0.01) and total religiosity scores (χ(2) = 5.1, p < 0.05) were positively correlated with developing a suicidal plan, which disappeared after controlling for demographic characteristics. Otherwise, no significant correlations were found between any religious characteristic and suicidal ideation, plan, or attempt in either Muslims or those with no religion.

CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to most previous studies, religious involvement plays less of a role in suicidal behaviors in at least one province of mainland China.