Table 3 Perceived Burdensomeness from Qualitative Interviews with US Chinese Older Adults with Past-month Suicidal Ideation
From: Cultural attributes of suicidal ideation among older immigrants: a qualitative study
Organizing Themes | Basic Themes | Conceptual meanings | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
Liability | Feel their death is worth more than their life to others | ||
Illness and Functional Impairmentb | Distress from serious physical illness; such as medical comorbidity, self-reported health | Because I get ill often, (I often) think, would it be nice if people die without knowing it? This thought contradicts to suicide. I hope my eyes don’t open by the time I wake up tomorrow. My life would pass, and (so do) the awful things. | |
Family Burdenb | Belief that one is a burden on family | They (Chinese older adults in the US) feel being alive is to bring troubles to children. I agree with it; (being alive) is to add burden to others. Older people have no (potentials for) development. | |
Expendability and being unwanted by childrenb | Feel expendable, unwanted | My eldest son doesn’t help me. When I was young, he asked me to work for him. He was afraid that I would leave. Now that I am old and useless, he wants to kick me away. | |
Self-hate | |||
Self-blame, shameb | Attributing adversities to self | I think my fate and personality hurt myself. So, I’m unhappy now, and I can’t tell anybody. | |
Low self-esteemb | Low self-esteem | Being angry, having stomach problems, and my physical strength is not as good as before…I feel like ten years older. I used to feel strong, and I can do anything. Now, I have little interest in doing things. I realize that I am old. This has diminished my confidence greatly, and all my hopes are shattered. | |
Uselessnessa | Feel useless and inability regarding social participation | Being old is useless, and I want to die if there is nothing I can do. It is meaningless to be alive. | |