Abstract
It has been reported that suicide rates are not a function of national instability. Assuming that the changes represented by presidential campaigns and elections might produce stress leading to increased suicide rates, this study tested the hypothesis that suicide might be a function of national elections. The suicide rates for California (n = 49,897) and Riverside County. California (n = 1,092) were studied for the 15-yr. period between 1960 and 1974. Both County and State suicide rates showed a 4-yr. cyclic fluctuation marked by yearly increases which peaked in the campaign year preceding the election and precipitously declined the year of the election. The notable exception was the election year of 1972, after which the rate climbed to a peak in 1973, the year of the Watergate scandal. The rate dropped again in 1974, after the president resigned. Rates were shown to have the greatest fluctuation in the County, where they deviated significantly from the regression line for each of the campaign/election years of the study period. The smoother rate curve for the State was explained as possibly representing a regression to the mean or as reflecting differences between metropolitan and non-metropolitan suicides.
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