Family and Social Stigma: The Association between Lived Experiences and Suicidality

Framed under interpretive phenomenological approach, this study investigated about the role of family in stigmatizing in-dividuals leading to suicide attempts. This study was conducted in Dir Lower, Chitral Lower and Chitral Upper, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A total of 17 participants were inter-viewed whereby the sampling was purposive and size was de-termined through saturation point technique. Findings are ex-tracted through thematic analysis technique as suggested by Braun and Clark (2006). It is concluded that family is an im-portant source of stigmatizing individuals (its own members) that is associated with developing suicidal behavior leading to suicide attempts. The experiences of confronting social stigma within family are variable whereby stress, feelings of negation and rejection, shame and guilt are few notable experiences. The reasons of family being the culprit of stigmatizing individuals primarily includes disagreements on decisions related to mar-riage, unemployment and not meeting the expectations of the family such as educational failure.