Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Psychology

Advisor

Michelle Fine

Committee Members

Murphy Halliburton

Jeanne Marecek

Subject Categories

Community Psychology | Multicultural Psychology | Social Psychology

Keywords

youth suicide, culture, India, belonging, social death

Abstract

Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among youth globally (WHO, 2019), and India reports one of the highest youth suicide rates worldwide (Balaji, 2023; Patel, 2012). This project draws attention to the psychological and social processes that young people navigate both prior to—and in the immediate aftermath of— suicidal acts in rural India, through the lens of culturally rooted experiences of distress and psychosocial care. Based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork at a rural community hospital (CH) in Chhattisgarh, Central India, the study includes in-depth, semi-structured interviews with fourteen young people admitted to CH’s emergency department following a suicidal act. First-person accounts are situated within the broader social and cultural landscape through interviews with twenty-one stakeholders involved in suicide care, including family members, healthcare workers, priests, community elders, and police officers. Interviews and fieldnotes were analyzed using a combination of deductive and inductive thematic analysis (Magnusson & Marecek, 2015; Braun & Clarke, 2021).

The analysis suggests that suicidal distress is understood through a psycho‑socio‑spiritual lens, wherein social ties and spiritual meanings profoundly shape how distress is experienced and managed. Young participants described a spectrum of stressors, ranging from enduring interpersonal conflicts with parents, spouses, or in-laws, to structural barriers such as unemployment and caste‑based restrictions, to acute life events like the loss of a loved one. A central finding is the emergence of fear of social death as a critical, culturally rooted risk factor for rural youth in India. While existing research highlights the role of belonging in suicide prevention (Joiner, 2005; Van Orden, 2012), it often overlooks how specific, culturally situated experiences of not belonging can escalate suicide risk. Fear of social death—defined as the intense emotional response to anticipated psychological, social, and material ostracism of oneself and one’s family (including future progeny) for breaching group norms—emerges in this study as a profound psychosocial driver of suicidal distress.

Turning to psychosocial practices of care in the aftermath, parents, siblings, and extended kin shoulder primary responsibility for a young person’s psychological, social, and moral rehabilitation. Specific psychosocial strategies identified in the analysis include relocation as emotional respite, restrictions on mobility and communication, and collective problem-solving through family gatherings and samaajik baithaks (communal justice forums). These practices unfold within a morally complex landscape where care is contingent on conformity, and therapeutic aims are biased toward upholding social harmony and group norms.

This project makes two significant contributions to the field. First, by introducing the concept of "fear of social death," it challenges and expands prevailing understandings of belonging in youth suicide risk prevention. It reveals how social alienation is not merely an internal struggle but can be a socially engineered consequence, imposed as punishment for defying group norms. Second, it sets a new agenda for youth suicide prevention, advocating for a culturally and socially conscious approach that engages cultural experts—elders, activists, and community leaders—who function as non-specialist healthcare actors.

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