This research was conducted by Rosa Aisa, Patricia Gascon and Gemma Larramona, professors in the Department of Economic Analysis at the Faculty of Economics and Business. Its presentation coincides with World Suicide Prevention Day, observed this Thursday, September 10.
Among its conclusions, the study emphasizes that suicide risk requires not an individual but a collective approach, one that addresses tensions, dynamics and vulnerabilities within the family household. Larramona has therefore called for a multidisciplinary approach, “involving social services, psychological support and specific therapies for gambling addiction, which is different from other types of addiction.”
The study, titled “Gambling Disorder, Family Context and Suicide Risk: Evidence from a Survey of Spanish Households,” identifies gambling addiction as the factor most strongly associated with suicidal behavior within the family, above other traditional variables.
NEGATIVE TENSIONS AND DYNAMICS WITHIN THE FAMILY
The study’s main innovation is that it does not analyze only the person who gambles or displays suicidal behavior, but considers the household as a whole. The researchers concluded that, within a family, suicidal behavior rises from 1% to 34% when one member has gambling problems. According to Larramona, this is due to two factors. “There is a more indirect pathway, linked to the financial deterioration this addiction can cause, and another more direct one, resulting from the harm to psychological well-being and family relationships, because it creates tensions, loss of trust, negative family dynamics and vulnerabilities,” the economist explains.
“The research shows that problem gambling can affect the entire family and that the characteristics of the household matter. In fact, even in households that do not have financial difficulties making ends meet, living with a person addicted to gambling is associated with a higher probability of suicidal behavior occurring within the family,” the authors emphasize.
One of the study’s most disruptive findings is that problem gambling damages the family environment through two clearly differentiated pathways, with the non-economic one being the most harmful. Although gambling obviously worsens a family’s financial situation through debt and the loss of resources, most of its association with suicide risk stems from direct and intangible factors.
FINANCIAL STRESS
The study focuses on perceived difficulty making ends meet, a subjective measure of stress. The data show that families reporting this economic strain are approximately three times more likely to report suicidal behavior than those in a neutral or positive situation.
This “psychological pressure” caused by household finances acts as a channel or transmission mechanism. Through it, various initial vulnerabilities, such as low levels of education or job insecurity, ultimately become a real increase in suicide risk because of the sustained anguish generated by uncertainty over day-to-day subsistence.
OTHER RISK AND RESILIENCE PROFILES
The University of Zaragoza study explores how household structure and lived experiences shape the collective situation, identifying dynamics that increase danger and others that act as a protective shield.
On the one hand, men who live alone and households in which multiple family units coexist, often associated with overcrowding, are linked to a higher risk of suicide. Exposure to psychological abuse, discrimination, criminal records within the family and housing instability are also predictors of vulnerability.
“Households in which a suicide attempt has occurred report economic difficulties, debt and residential insecurity much more frequently. The most striking finding from the descriptive analysis is that nearly 20% of households with a suicide attempt had had a member sleep on the street, in a shelter or in a hostel, compared with a much smaller proportion of other households,” explains Professor Gemma Larramona.
The study also finds associations with mood disorders, alcohol and drug problems, psychological abuse, discrimination and criminal records, as well as certain types of family structure. “Therefore, the message should not be ‘gambling equals suicide,’ but rather that problem gambling is embedded in a set of family, psychological, social and economic vulnerabilities. Forty percent of households with suicide attempts have experienced psychological abuse or discrimination, or have a member with mental health problems.”
On the other hand, households where the mother is primarily responsible for caring for children under the age of 6 show a lower risk of suicide, suggesting a powerful protective effect linked to caregiving bonds. Similarly, institutional support, including access to pensions and official recognition of dependency status, reduces risk by facilitating direct access to social benefits.
TOWARD A PREVENTION MODEL FOCUSED ON THE FAMILY SYSTEM
The findings of this study point to the need to complement public suicide prevention policies. “The article proposes treating gambling as a public health issue and coordinating mental health services, gambling problem care and support for people facing exclusion or housing insecurity,” the researchers note.
Current strategies, which focus almost exclusively on the individual, are insufficient in light of the evidence that risk emerges from a complex interaction between mental health, the economy and family structure.
The research concludes that intervention and support programs will be substantially more effective if they approach the family as a systemic whole. To achieve this, it is essential to establish a real and agile coordination network between mental health services, specific addiction care programs and social services responsible for economic and housing problems, detecting the suffering of the entire household in time.
