Facts About Youth Suicide

 

It is difficult for adults to understand what would motivate a young person to take his/her own life. We recognize changes in the behavior of the youths in our lives but we tend to see them as part of the emotional upheaval of adolescence. We see the behavior as a way to get attention or just something they are going through, a phase that will pass. For most youths this is true. For some however, the pain is so great, suicide seems to be the only reasonable solution. So how can we help our young people through this turbulent time? The first thing we need to do is to be well informed ourselves about the Silent Epidemic of youth suicide.

 

Did you know?

  • Suicide is the THIRD leading cause of death for ages 15-24 and the FOURTH leading cause of death for children ages 10-145.

  • Among college students, suicide is the SECOND leading cause of death6.

  • The U.S. Department of Health reports in the year 2000, over one million youth attempted suicide. That's over 2,700 attempts each day in our nation by young people ages 12-177.

  • Each week in our nation we lose over 100 young people to suicide8.

  • More teenagers and young adults have died from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, influenza, pneumonia and chronic lung disease COMBINED9.

  • In the past forty years, youth suicide rates have almost tripled. Between 1980 and 1996, suicide rates for ages 10-14 increased by over 100%8. Although the suicide rates have declined over the last three or four years, it remains at an unacceptable level.

  • Even though white males make up the majority of completed suicides, from 1980 to 1995, suicide among black youth ages 10-14 increased 233%, and in black youth ages 15-19 suicide rates increased 126%. For black youth in the Southern U.S., there was an increase of 214%10.

  • The Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System is a survey, conducted by the Centers of Disease Control, that includes national, state, and local school-based representative samples of 9 th through 12 th grade students. The purpose is to monitor priority health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth in the United States. The surveys are conducted every two years to determine the prevalence of these health risk behaviors. Behaviors that contribute to unhealthy lifestyles and those that indicate possible depression and/or suicidal ideation are included. www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/index.htm