Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna, Galle, Sri Lanka.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 7;20(4):2885. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20042885.
In the late 1990s, Sri Lanka had a record rate of suicide deaths. Since then, deaths have decreased dramatically due to the restriction of lethal agrochemicals. The number of nonfatal suicidal acts, however, remains extraordinarily high. A disproportionate number of these cases are adolescents and young adults-mainly girls and young women. This paper offers a close look at adolescent girls in rural Sri Lanka who had engaged in nonfatal suicidal acts. We carried out interviews with daughters and mothers while the girls were receiving medical care following a suicidal act. Drawing from these interviews, we describe the circumstances leading to girls' suicidal acts, the responses and moral judgments made by adult family members, and the reputational and social consequences of these acts. Few girls intended to die; none had previously undertaken a suicidal act, and none gave evidence of "mental illness". In many cases, girls' suicidal acts were triggered by acute family conflicts, often concerning situations that were seen to compromise the girl's sexual respectability and the honor of her family.
20 世纪 90 年代末，斯里兰卡的自杀死亡率创历史新高。此后，由于致命农用化学品的限制，自杀死亡人数大幅下降。然而，非致命自杀行为的数量仍然极高。这些案例中相当大比例是青少年和年轻人——主要是女孩和年轻女性。本文仔细研究了在农村斯里兰卡从事非致命自杀行为的少女。我们对女儿和母亲进行了采访，当时女孩们在自杀后正在接受医疗护理。从这些采访中，我们描述了导致女孩自杀的情况、成年家庭成员的反应和道德判断，以及这些行为的声誉和社会后果。很少有女孩想死；之前没有一个人有过自杀行为，也没有人表现出“精神疾病”的迹象。在许多情况下，女孩的自杀行为是由急性家庭冲突引发的，这些冲突往往涉及到一些情况，这些情况被认为损害了女孩的性尊严和家庭的名誉。
