Association between socioeconomic attainments and suicidal ideation by age groups in Korea

Suicidal ideation is a strong antecedent of suicidal behavior, associated with increased likelihood of suicide. Thus, suicidal ideation serves to identify which groups are at more risk of suicide and has policy implications for targeting groups to prevent suicide.

A substantial body of research has addressed potential determinants of suicide ideation in Korea. Little attention has been paid, however, to analyzing the extent to which socioeconomic attainments (education, household income, and employment status) are associated with risk of suicidal ideation, drawing on nationally representative data.

Data were drawn from the 2012 Korea Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS). Among the 12,606 respondents, the findings are based on 1,500 young adults (age 18-35) and 3,469 middle-aged adults (age 36-55) who answered a question about suicidal ideation.

For young adults, respondents from 2-year and 4-year colleges and higher had lower probabilities of suicidal ideation compared with respondents from high school. People out of the labor force also exhibited an elevated risk of suicidal ideation compared with those in waged employment. Middle-aged adults displayed different patterns. Middle-aged respondents from 4-year colleges or higher had an increased likelihood of suicidal ideation. The likelihood of reporting suicidal ideation was predicted to decrease as household income increased only for middle-aged adults.

The information about suicidal ideation was obtained from only one question of self-response, which limits the validity of the suicidal ideation measurement. The cross-sectional setting of the data prevents us from estimating causal relationships. Nevertheless, the findings imply that age-specific policy should be implemented to ameliorate differential risk for suicidal ideation and benefit public mental health in the long run.