Correlates of the belief in the inheritance of suicide.

The belief in the inheritance of suicide was not associated with manic-depressive tendencies or religiosity in a sample of 120 college students.

Consistency of immigrant suicide rates in Austria with country-of-birth suicide rates: a role for genetic risk factors for suicide?

Multifaceted evidence (family, twin, adoption, molecular genetic, geographic, and surname studies of suicide) suggests genetic risk factors for suicide. The migrant study design is also informative in this context, but underused. In particular, immigrant studies of suicide with a continental European host country are unavailable. The correspondence of suicide prevalence among 22 immigrant groups in Austria (1970-2006) with those of the homelands during the same period was analyzed. Immigrant and homeland suicide rates were significantly positively associated. Controls for age of suicide victim, immigrant group size, national pride, and quality of life in the homelands left the finding essentially unchanged. This correspondence of immigrant and country-of-birth suicide rates is consistent with the assumption of population differences in the prevalence of genetic risk factors for suicide, for which there is emerging evidence.

Scientometric analysis and bibliography of digit ratio (2D:4D) research, 1998-2008.

A scientometric analysis of modern research on the second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D), a widely studied putative marker for prenatal androgen action, is presented. In early 2009, this literature totalled more than 300 publications and, since its initiation in 1998, has grown at a rate slightly faster than linear. Key findings included evidence of publication bias and citation bias, incomplete coverage and outdatedness of existing reviews, and a dearth of meta-analyses in this field. 2D:4D research clusters noticeably in terms of researchers, institutions, countries, and journals involved. Although 2D:4D is an anthropometric trait, most of the research has been conducted at psychology departments, not anthropology departments. However, 2D:4D research has not been predominantly published in core and specialized journals of psychology, but rather in more broadly scoped journals of the behavioral sciences, biomedical social sciences, and neurosciences. Total citation numbers of 2D:4D papers for the most part were not larger than their citation counts within 2D:4D research, indicating that until now, only a few 2D:4D studies have attained broader interest outside this specific field. Comparative citation analyses show that 2D:4D research presently is commensurate in size and importance to evolutionary psychological jealousy research, but has grown faster than the latter field. In contrast, it is much smaller and has spread more slowly than research about the Implicit Association Test Fifteen conjectures about anticipated trends in 2D:4D research are outlined, appendixed by a first-time bibliography of the entirety of the published 2D:4D literature.

The beliefs in the inheritance of risk factors for suicide scale (BIRFSS): cross-cultural validation in Estonia, Malaysia, Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The genetics of suicide is increasingly recognized and relevant for mental health literacy, but actual beliefs may lag behind current knowledge. We examined such beliefs in student samples (total N = 686) from Estonia, Malaysia, Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States with the Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale. Cultural effects were small, those of key demographics nil. Several facets of construct validity were demonstrated. Marked differences in perceived plausibility of evidence about the genetics of suicide according to research design, observed in all samples, may be of general interest for investigating lay theories of abnormal behavior and communicating behavioral and psychiatric genetic research findings.

Beliefs about the genetics of suicide in Canadian students: cross-language validation of the Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale (BIRFSS).

AIM: The genetics underlying suicidal behavior is becoming increasingly recognized and investigated. Convergent evidence towards this end has emerged from numerous research strategies (adoption, family, genome-scan, geographic, immigrant, molecular genetic, surname, and twin studies of suicide). The topic-related mental-health literacy (i.e. knowledge and beliefs) of professionals and laypersons, however, may lag behind this research progress, and data on this question are scant. The aim of the present study was therefore to further validate, in a cross-language setting, the novel 22-item Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale (BIRFSS), originally developed in German, which assesses beliefs about the genetics of suicide. METHODS: Data were collected from a mixed student sample from Canada (n = 288; 70.5% females, 58.0% studying psychology as a major or minor). RESULTS: Factor analysis of BIRFSS items yielded a dominant first factor. Internal scale consistency was, however, only middling (lower than previously observed in Austrian samples). Although the structure of beliefs about the genetics of suicide seems to be complex, the Canadian sample's item-performance indicators corresponded strongly to those obtained in Austrian samples, thus indicating cross-sample and cross-language robustness of item statistics. CONCLUSION: For the Canadian sample, BIRFSS scores were positively related to overall and specific knowledge about suicide and general beliefs about genetic determinism (convergent validity), whereas they were not (or only trivially) related to the Big Five personality dimensions, lay theories of suicide, locus of control, social desirability, religiosity, and political orientation (discriminant validity), and to several key demographic variables. Supplemental findings, study limitations, application possibilities, user recommendations, and avenues for further inquiry are discussed.

Not carried away by a moonlight shadow: no evidence for associations between suicide occurrence and lunar phase among more than 65,000 suicide cases in Austria, 1970-2006.

OBJECTIVES: Belief in lunar effects on abnormal or deviant human behavior ("moon madness") is old, common, perpetuated by the media and notably widespread among health professionals, and may thus have public health consequences. This study investigated lunar effects on one particular outcome (completed suicide) for which the literature appears unsettled, owing to some recent reports with positive findings. METHODS: The timing of all 65,206 suicides (46,451 men; 18,755 women) officially registered in Austria between 1970 and 2006 was analyzed with respect to the phases of the moon. This was the first such study based on national data conducted outside the USA, with the database comprising the second-longest study period and the second-largest sample ever investigated in this subject area. RESULTS: Observed proportions of both male and female suicide occurrence did not deviate from expected proportions during the new, crescent, full, and decrescent moon quarters or from those expected for 3-day windows centered around new and full moon, relative to the interphase. Subgroup analysis (by sex and year), additionally conducted for demonstration purposes, yielded results conspicuously resembling those of related studies with positive findings; namely, sporadically emerging significant findings that were entirely absent in the overall analysis and directionally erratic, thus suggesting they were spurious (false positive). CONCLUSIONS: This large-sample evidence strongly suggests no lunar effects on the timing of completed suicide. Scattered previous evidence in support of such effects in all likelihood was spurious; that is, was due to statistical type 1 errors or erroneously taking calendrical periodicities of suicide occurrence that are real as evidence for lunar effects.

The contributions of Hans-Dieter Rösler: pioneer of digit ratio (2D:4D) research.

Over the past decade, the second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D), a putative biomarker for the organizational (permanent) effects of prenatal androgens on the human brain, body, and behavior, has received extensive research attention in psychology. This account makes more widely accessible the contributions of the German psychologist, Hans-Dieter Rösler, an early, for a long time unnoticed, predecessor of modern 2D:4D research. In the mid-1950s, Rösler collected a massive sample of hand outline drawings, totalling nearly 7,000 individuals, ranging in age from 1 mo. to 70 yr. With regard to the distal finger-extent pattern, Rösler differentiated radial (longer index than ring finger), ulnar (reversed pattern), and intermediate hand types, which reflect higher (more female-typical), lower (more male-typical), and intermediate 2D:4D, respectively. Here is summarized Rösler's research. In a series of investigations into the hand types, he reported on their anatomical bases, unsuitability for paternity testing, developmental changes, heritability, sex, side, and occupational group differences, and associations with left-handedness, manual dexterity, mental retardation, and clinodactyly. Based on new data from 313 male and 316 female adults, hand type is further shown to be only a weak proxy of actual 2D:4D, leaving 75% of the interindividual variation in 2D:4D unexplained. Notwithstanding these shortcomings of the hand-type method, Rösler's work from the 1950s still has the potential to inform modern 2D:4D research, as it contains a multitude of testable hypotheses not yet picked up by current research.

The malleability of beliefs in the genetics of suicide: an intervention study with the beliefs in the inheritance of risk factors for suicide scale (BIRFSS).

BACKGROUND: Previous research has documented that disbelief in the genetics of suicide prevails. OBJECTIVES: This study examined for the first time the malleability of such beliefs and their internal structure, using the Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale (BIRFSS). METHODS: A sample of 38 Austrian first-year psychology students (27 women, 11 men), previously not exposed to the topic, studied a recent overview article on the genetics of suicide as a self-paced exercise. Exposure to the contents of the article was evaluated with a subjective self-report measure and with an objective quiz. RESULTS: Validity checks were suggestive for a successful implementation of the intervention. Compared with baseline data 4 months prior to the intervention, evaluation of the intervention showed that participants held significantly stronger beliefs (Cohen's d = 1.41) in the genetics of suicide which also were more coherent. CONCLUSIONS: Disbelief in the genetics of suicide is modifiable. Study limitations, directions for future research, and practical implications are discussed.

Lay theories of suicide: test-restest reliability and further validation of lester and bean's attribution of causes to suicide scale.

BACKGROUND: Lay theories on abnormal behavior and mental disorders have been growing as a field recently. Lester and Bean have contributed to these endeavors by developing the Lester and Bean Attribution of Causes to Suicides Scale (1992), an instrument that gauges beliefs concerning the causes of suicidal behavior (intrapsychic, interpersonal, and societal causes). OBJECTIVES: To provide test-retest reliability figures (two-month interval) and to further validate the scale. METHODS: The instrument was administered to 155 Austrian psychology undergraduates. Test-retest reliabilities, scale intercorrelations, and correlations with locus of control, among others, were ascertained. RESULTS: Test-retest reliabilities amounted to r = 0.67 for intrapsychic, 0.53 for interpersonal, and 0.56 for societal causes, and to 0.59 for the total scale (all ps < 0.001). All three subscales were, as previously observed, significantly positively intercorrelated. Belief in intrapsychic causes was weakly positively related to the internality dimension of the locus of control construct, beliefs in interpersonal and in societal causes were significantly positively associated with societal externality, and there was a significant positive correlation of the fatalistic externality dimension with all three subscales of the Lester-Bean Scale. CONCLUSIONS: In view of the moderate internal scale consistencies, the test-retest reliabilities can be seen as satisfying. The significant intercorrelations among attributed causes of suicide further support the hypothesis that the critical dimension of lay theories of suicide is the belief that suicide has definite causes, regardless of the type of cause. Directions for future research are discussed.

Genetics of suicide: a systematic review of twin studies.

OBJECTIVES: Convergent evidence from a multitude of research designs (adoption, family, genomescan, geographical, immigrant, molecular genetic, surname, and twin studies of suicide) suggests genetic contributions to suicide risk. The present account provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the twin studies on this topic. METHODS: A total of 32 studies (19 case reports, 5 twin register-based studies, 4 population-based epidemiological studies, 4 studies of surviving co-twins) located through extensive literature search strategies are summarized and discussed here. This literature corpus was published between 1812 and 2006 in six languages and reports data from 13 countries. RESULTS: A meta-analysis of all register-based studies and all case reports aggregated shows that concordance for completed suicide is significantly more frequent among monozygotic than dizygotic twin pairs. The results of co-twin studies rule out exclusively psychosocially based explanations of this pattern. Population-based epidemiological studies demonstrate a significant contribution of additive genetic factors (heritability estimates: 30-55%) to the broader phenotype of suicidal behavior (suicide thoughts, plans and attempts) that largely overlaps for different types of suicidal behavior and is largely independent of the inheritance of psychiatric disorders. Nonshared environmental effects (i.e. personal experiences) also contribute substantially to the risk of suicidal behavior, whereas effects of shared (family) environment do not. CONCLUSIONS: The totality of evidence from twin studies of suicide strongly suggests genetic contributions to liability for suicidal behavior. To further research progress in this area, an extensive discussion of design limitations, shortcomings of the literature and further points is provided, including sources of bias, gaps in the literature, errors in previous reviews, age and sex effects and twin-singleton differences in suicide risk, and notes from a history-of-science view.

Lay theories of suicide among Austrian psychology undergraduates.

Lester and Bean's (1992) Attribution of Causes to Suicide Scale gauges lay theories of suicide including intrapsychic problems, interpersonal conflicts, and societal forces as causes. Results obtained with its German form (n=165 Austrian psychology undergraduates) showed no sex differences and no social-desirability effects. Intriguingly, all three subscales were moderately intercorrelated, thereby indicating respondents' general agreement (or disagreement) with all three theories. Thus, the critical dimension of lay theories of suicide appears to be the belief that suicide has definite causes (regardless of type) versus that it is without causes (unpredictable). In addition, religiosity was positively associated (and overall knowledge about suicide negatively associated) with belief in intrapsychic causes, whereas liberal political views were negatively associated with belief in interpersonal causes.

Testing the Finno-Ugrian suicide hypothesis: replication and refinement with regional suicide data from eastern Europe.

Multiple lines of evidence indicate specific genetic contributions to suicidal behavior. In particular, geographic studies support the Finno-Ugrian Suicide Hypothesis, i.e., genetic differences between populations may partially account for geographic patterns of suicide prevalence. Specifically, within Europe the high suicide-rate nations constitute a contiguous J-shaped belt. The present research replicated and extended 2003 findings of Voracek, Fisher, and Marusic with new data. Across 37 European nations, an interaction term of squared latitude multiplied with longitude (quantifying the J-shaped belt) accounted for 32% of the cross-national variance in total suicide rates alone, while latitude accounted merely for 18% of variance over and above those. Refined analysis included regional data from countries critical for testing the hypothesis (89 regions of Belarus, western Russia, and the Ukraine) and yielded an even more clear-cut pattern (56% and 3.5%, respectively). These results are consistent with the Finno-Ugrian Suicide Hypothesis. Study limitations and directions for further research are discussed.

Psychometric properties and correlates of the Lester-Bean Attribution of Causes to Suicide Scale (German form).

Psychometric properties and correlates of the German form of Lester and Bean's 1992 Attribution of Causes to Suicide Scale, of 18 items tapping into lay theories of suicide (intrapsychic problems, interpersonal conflicts, and societal forces as causes), were investigated in a sample of the general population in Austria (n=156). The three attributional dimensions presented moderate internal consistencies and the 18 items appeared to be factorially orderly, as indicated by exploratory factor analysis. Previous results were replicated, with positive interrelations among all three dimensions, but these were largely confined to men. Societal causes of suicide were significantly less frequently endorsed than intrapsychic or interpersonal causes. Respondents' sex, intelligence, and knowledge about suicide were unrelated, and scores on the Big Five personality factors and social desirability were largely unrelated to the three dimensions. Endorsing intrapsychic causes to suicide was correlated with advanced age, religiosity, and conservative political orientation, and the three dimensions entertained meaningful associations with locus of control (internality, social externality, and fatalistic externality). All observed demographic and attitudinal correlates were, however, of modest magnitude. Implications of the findings and directions for further inquiry are discussed.

Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale: development, reliability, stability, and convergent and discriminant validity.

Findings from adoption, family, geographical, immigrant, molecular genetic, surname, and twin studies suggest genetic risk factors have a role in suicidal behavior. However, related mental health literacy (knowledge and beliefs) even of future health-care professionals who will be concerned with suicide lag behind this research progress. As no scale for assessing such beliefs is available, the 22-item Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale was constructed, its contents rated by experts in a validation survey and administered to samples of 70 medical and 165 psychology students. Medical students held stronger beliefs in the genetics of suicide than psychology students. Internal scale consistency and test-retest reliability were assessed as adequate. Factor analysis of the 22 items yielded a dominant first factor. Scores were positively related to knowledge about suicide (convergent validity) but for the most part unrelated to lay theories of suicide, political orientation, religiosity, and social desirability (discriminant validity). This novel scale shows potential for assessing individuals' beliefs about the genetics of suicide. Applications may include basic research, educational contexts, and evaluation of professional training.

Beliefs in genetic determinism and attitudes towards psychiatric genetic research: psychometric scale properties, construct associations, demographic correlates, and cross-cultural comparisons.

Using two new scales, this study examined beliefs in genetic determinism and attitudes towards psychiatric genetic research in student samples from Austria, Malaysia, Romania, and the United Kingdom. For both constructs, effects of culture were detectable, whereas those related to key demographics were either small and inconsistent across samples (political orientation and religiosity) or zero (sex and age). Judged from factorial dimensionality and internal consistency, the psychometric properties of both scales were satisfactory. Belief in genetic determinism had lower prevalence and corresponded only modestly to positive attitudes towards psychiatric genetic research which had higher prevalence. The correlations of both constructs with a preference of inequality among social groups (social dominance orientation) were modest and inconsistent across samples. Both scales appear appropriate for cross-cultural applications, in particular for research into lay theories and public perceptions regarding genetic vs environmental effects on human behavior, mental disorders, and behavioral and psychiatric genetic research related to these.

Correlates, item-sequence invariance, and test-retest reliability of the beliefs in the inheritance of risk factors for suicide scale (BIRFSS).

Genetic contributions to suicide are increasingly recognized. This study further validated the novel 22-item Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale (BIRFSS), which assesses individuals' beliefs about the genetics of suicide. Data from 155 mainly Austrian psychology undergraduates (42 men, 113 women) indicated adequate internal scale consistency and 2-mo. test-retest reliability. Scores were temporally stable and factor analysis of items yielded a dominant first factor. Scores were positively related to general beliefs about genetic determinism and to positive attitudes towards psychiatric genetic research (convergent validity), but unrelated to lay theories of suicide, locus of control, self-reported religiosity and political orientation, religious and spiritual beliefs, and social dominance orientation (discriminant validity). Effects of sex, age, and nationality (Austrian vs other) on scores were negligible. Item statistics corresponded strongly to those obtained from administering the item sequence in reverse order. Item statistics were strongly correlated with those observed in two previous validation studies, suggesting cross-sample robustness of the item-performance indicators of this measure. The scale shows potential for basic research and curriculum evaluation.

The Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale (BIRFSS): further results on demographic correlates, dimensionality, reliability, and validity.

Convergent lines of evidence from adoption, family, geographical, immigrant, molecular genetic, surname, and twin studies of suicide point to genetic contributions to risk factors for suicidal behavior. Related mental health literacy (knowledge and beliefs) of professionals and laypersons may, however, lag behind this research progress. The purpose of this study was to further validate the 22-item Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale (BIRFSS), a novel instrument for assessing individuals' beliefs in the genetics of suicide. Data from a general population sample of 159 Austrian adults showed adequate internal scale consistency. Due to deliberate content heterogeneity, the instrument has a subscale structure, but factor analysis of items extracted a dominant first factor. BIRFSS scores were positively related to overall and specific knowledge on suicide facts (convergent validity), whereas unrelated to the Big Five personality dimensions, locus of control, social desirability, and verbal intelligence (discriminant validity). Demographic correlates of BIRFSS scores included respondents' age and religiosity (both positive ones), but not respondents' sex, educational level, or political orientation.