Relationship of internal-external control and United States suicide rates, 1973–1976

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Abstract
Related annual variations in United States suicide rates between 1973 and 1976 to the concomitant annual variations in internal-external (I-E) control scores obtained from a representative sample of the United States population. High scores indicated perceptions of external control. As predicted, I-E scores were correlated significantly with the increasing suicide rate of the total United States population and increased significantly for persons in the (15–24 and 25–34 year) age groups that displayed substantial linear increases in suicide rates, but did not increase significantly for Ss in the remaining age groups (which showed slight decreases in suicide rates). I-E scores were correlated significantly with the suicide rates of the other two (65–74 and 75–84 year) age groups that showed a linear decrease or substantial nonlinear fluctuation in suicide rates. Thus, linear or substantial nonlinear variations in suicide rates always were associated with corresponding variations in perceptions of external control.

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