Dissertation Research: The Effects of Suicide Prevention Programs on Local Understandings of Suicide and Gender in Rural China

中国的女性自杀率高于男性，主要原因是农村地区的女性自杀。中国自杀的性别模式是一种与其他国家背道而驰的独特趋势。这已经成为学者和卫生专业人员的主要关注，最近在农村中国启动了各种预防自杀的努力。本论文是由圣路易斯华盛顿大学的文化人类学家进行的一项研究，考察了自杀预防计划如何影响中国农村地区人们的性别观念和自杀观念。该项目将探索自杀的当地含义和当地自杀话语中的性别观念，并试图了解各种自杀预防努力在培养新的中国人认同感方面的作用，特别是在性别方面。为了实现这一目标，研究人员将在两个农村进行比较的人种学研究，其中一个村庄有自杀预防计划，另一个没有自杀计划。参与观察、焦点小组、深度访谈和文本分析将被用来了解自杀和性别之间的关系，以及自杀预防计划在产生关于自杀和性别的新想法方面的作用。这项研究将推进人类学对自杀的研究，将其作为理解正在经历快速变化的社会和文化的一种手段。这项研究还将通过调查中国当地不断变化的自杀观念，为医学人类学的理论做出贡献。中国是一个与全球力量日益融合的社会。除了对年轻社会科学家的教育做出贡献外，这项研究的更广泛的影响是它将产生关于自杀的新知识，这反过来将有助于在中国和其他国家制定更好的预防自杀议程。通过调查当前自杀预防项目对性别自杀观念的影响，本研究将有助于为中国农村开发更具性别敏感性的自杀预防项目。更广泛地说，这项研究将阐明自杀预防工作的文化层面，通过解释不同的地方环境如何对自杀有不同的理解，可能有助于在中国和其他国家更有效地预防自杀。

China has higher suicide rates among women than men, primarily due to female suicides in rural areas. The gender pattern of suicide in China is a unique trend that runs counter to those in other countries. This has become a major concern of scholars and health professionals and diverse suicide prevention efforts have recently been initiated in rural China. This dissertation research by a cultural anthropologist from Washington University in St. Louis examines how suicide prevention programs influence people's conceptions of gender and suicide in rural areas of China. The project will explore local meanings of suicide and perceptions of gender in local discourse of suicide, and attempt to understand the role of the various suicide prevention efforts in cultivating a new conception of Chinese identity, particularly with regard to gender. To attain this goal, the researcher will conduct comparative ethnographic research in two rural villages, one of which has a suicide prevention program and one which does not. Participation observation, focus groups, in-depth interviewing, and textual analysis will be utilized to understand the relationship between suicide and gender and the role of suicide prevention programs in producing new ideas about suicide and gender. This research will advance an anthropological approach to suicide as a means of understanding a society and culture undergoing rapid change. This research will also contribute to theories within medical anthropology by investigating changing local concepts of suicide in China, a society that is increasingly integrated with global forces. The broader impact of this research, in addition to its contribution to the education of a young social scientist, is the new knowledge it will generate with regard to suicide, which will in turn contribute to developing a better agenda for preventing suicide in China and other countries. By investigating the effects of current suicide prevention programs on conceptions of suicide with regard to gender, this research will lead to the development of more gender-sensitive prevention programs for rural Chinese. More broadly, this research will shed light on cultural dimensions of suicide prevention efforts that may help make them more effective in China and other countries by providing an explanation of how suicide can be differently understood in diverse local settings.