Hispanic suicide in U.S. metropolitan areas: Examining the effects of immigration, assimilation, affluence, and disadvantage

This study examines the structural correlates of Hispanic suicide at the metropolitan level using Mortality Multiple Cause-of-Death Records and 2000 census data. The authors test competing hypotheses regarding the effects of immigration, assimilation, affluence, economic disadvantage, and ethnic inequality on suicide levels for Hispanics as a whole and disaggregated by immigrant status. The findings point to multiple forces and complex relationships among social structure, culture, and Hispanic suicide. The findings also suggest that these factors have unique effects on native-born versus immigrant populations. This is the first study to determine the structural correlates of suicide among Hispanics and to assess the macrolevel influence of immigration and cultural assimilation on ethnic-specific suicide.