An applied research on the relationship of suicide phenomenon with religion and society: Case of Western Mediterranean Region

Suicide has an ancient history as it is an individual event in terms of the way it occurs in almost every society in the historical process, and a social phenomenon in terms of its causes and consequences. In the historical process, suicide has been attributed many different meanings and different theories have been put forward to understand and explain it. The fact that suicide has a very wide conceptual structure and field of study shows that it can not be explained with a single dimension. Although there are many studies on suicide in the literature, the majority of these studies have focused on the individual aspect of suicide. Therefore, this study attempts to explain the social dimension of suicide. This study aims to examine the effect of factual identities and religious attitudes, meanings and purpose of life and work life satisfaction levels on the suicide-related attitudes of people living in Antalya, Isparta and Burdur provinces in the Western Mediterranean Region. The sample group consists of a total of 1018 participants, 446 women and 572 men, 18 years and over living in the provincial centers of Antalya, Isparta and Burdur. In the research, the data obtained by applying the "Attitudes Towards Suicide", "Religious Attitude", "Meaning and Purpose of Life" and "Work Life Satisfaction" scales were analyzed through the SPSS 26.0 program. As a result of the research, it was seen that the factual identities of the people living in the Western Mediterranean Region showed a significant difference on their attitudes towards suicide. At the same time, as a result of the analyzes, it was determined that there were significant differences in terms of socio-demographic variables on the levels of religiosity, meaning and purpose of life, and working life of those living in the Western Mediterranean Region. Finally, it was determined that there were positive/negative, significant/insignificant relationships at different levels between attitudes towards suicide and religious attitude sub-dimensions, meaning and purpose of life sub-dimensions, and working life sub-dimensions.