Suicidality and Sport in 41 Metropolitan areas, 2006–2007 and 2009–2010

ABSTRACT

Issues related to professional sport transcend far beyond the world of sport itself. Previous research on the topic of sport and suicide has found that a significant association exists between the success of professional sport teams and the well-being of people in general. Data on suicide rates in United States’ metropolitan areas were analyzed from 2006 to 2007 and from 2009 to 2010 to measure the association between suicide rates and the success of professional sport teams in these same metropolitan areas. Results from statistical analyses reveal that the successes of professional sport teams are significantly related to lower suicide rates, while the only game in town hypothesis was not supported.

KEYWORDS:

• Suicide
• sport
• team performance

Notes

1. Gabennesch (1988:142) says that “A broken-promise effect is no more likely to have a socially uniform impact than is any other independent variable.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Fernquist

Robert Fernquist, PhD in Sociology (Indiana University), B.S. and M.S in Sociology (Brigham Young University), is a Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences and Languages at the University of Central Missouri. His research focuses on the causes and prevention of suicide. A theme in his work as been the powerful influence that social integration has as a protective factor against suicide and attempted suicide. Recent publications have appeared in Suicidology Online, Sociological Focus, and Omega: The Journal of Death and Dying.

Phillips Cutright

Phillips Cutright, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University - Bloomington. B.A., College of Wooster, 1954; Ph.D., Sociology, University of Chicago, 1960. Professor-- Researcher: Washington State University, Dartmouth College, U.S. Social Security Administration, Vanderbilt University, Washington University of St. Louis, Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies, Indiana University. Some 90 articles in refereed journals on cross-national political research, population trends, illegitimate and marital fertility rates, suicide and other causes of death.