Suicide beliefs and behaviour among young Muslims and Hindus in the UK

Loewenthal, K M and Kamal, Z

(2002)

Loewenthal, K M and Kamal, Z (2002) Suicide beliefs and behaviour among young Muslims and Hindus in the UK. Mental health, religion and culture, 5 (2).

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Abstract

It has been suggested that Hindu tradition is relatively tolerant of suicide, while Islamic tradition has consistently regarded suicide as a very grave sin. This study sought to examine the possible impact of religious-cultural tradition by examining suicide-related beliefs and reported behaviour in non-clinical samples of young Hindus (n=40) and Muslims (n=60) living in the UK. Participants completed a short demographic questionnaire, the Reasons for Living Inventory, and the measures of suicide thoughts, plans and behaviour. The Hindus endorsed moral, total and (marginally) survival-and-coping reasons for living less strongly than did the Muslims. Women endorsed family-related, fear of suicide and (marginally) total reasons for living less strongly than did men. There were no noteworthy between-group differences with respect to suicide thoughts, plans or behaviour. Causal inferences are not possible, but the results are consistent with the suggestions that scriptural differences between Hinduism and Islam in attitudes to suicide may be responsible for some of the differences detected in this study.

Information about this Version

This is a Submitted version
This version's date is: 1/7/2002
This item is not peer reviewed

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https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/8f0def71-8625-dffa-6164-020f85f5df5a/6/

Item TypeJournal Article
TitleSuicide beliefs and behaviour among young Muslims and Hindus in the UK
AuthorsLoewenthal, K M
Kamal, Z
DepartmentsFaculty of Science\Psychology

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Deposited by Research Information System (atira) on 19-Jun-2013 in Royal Holloway Research Online.Last modified on 19-Jun-2013


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