ABSTRACT
Suicidal crises arise from a complex interplay of a person’s characteristics, their environment, and the broader social context, all of which are subject to change over time, but comprehensive analyses combining these levels are scarce. In the German context, this presents a research gap due to regional variations in both sociostructural risk/protective factors and suicide rates (which are highest in the Eastern federal states). Hierarchical age-period-cohort analyses (HAPCs) using seven representative cross-sectional population surveys spanning almost two decades (2003–2021) and including 17,542 individuals allowed for an empirical investigation of Durkheim’s theory of anomie positing suicide-preventive or -promoting effects, respectively, of the social context. Age effects implied a decrease in suicidal ideation up to the age of about 35 and hereafter an increase but disappeared after including sociodemographic/socioeconomic variables. Predicted suicidal ideation also varied by period, increasing in 2011, decreasing in 2012, and slowly increasing again until 2020. Predicted values of suicidal ideation were higher for the cohort born 1960–1969 (compared to before 1946). In contrast to suicide rates, suicidal ideation was lower in East Germany. Additional effects pertained to income and civil status. These findings challenge stereotyping attributions of regional risk differences but instead point to the influence of precarious conditions and, therefore, highlight the importance of both the closer and broader social context. They also underline that major upheavals affecting society as a whole require responses going beyond the individual level.
