Suicide has become second biggest killer of American teens. But why are more American teens committing suicide now a days?
In the 1950s, when the term “teenager” was popularized, it evoked problems. Pimply youngsters who behaved riskyly outside the home — drunk, pregnant or in car accidents — were “the number one fear of American citizens,” Bill Bryson wrote in his memoir, “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.” The risks facing America’s teenagers today come from within. Boys are now more likely to kill themselves than to be killed in a car accident. Girls are almost 50% more likely to injure themselves in a suicide attempt than to face an unplanned pregnancy. Suicide is the second biggest killer of ten to eighteen year olds after accidents.
The rise in youth suicide is part of a wider rise in mental health problems among young people. This predated the pandemic, but probably precipitated it. In 2021, nearly half of American high school students reported experiencing persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness in the past year, up from 26% in 2009; one in five had seriously considered suicide, compared to 14%; and 9% tried to end their life, compared to 6% (see graph). Although rates for 15- to 19-year-olds are not unprecedented (a similar peak occurred in the early 1990s), rates for 10- to 14-year-olds are higher than ever before.
The fact that it is more acceptable for young people to discuss their feelings has certainly contributed to some of the changes, such as an increase in self-reported sadness. Better screening can also play a role. But neither explains the most alarming data: the suicide rate. Attempts, injuries and deaths among young Americans have increased over the past decade. According to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc), no age group saw a steeper increase last year than men ages 15 to 24.
The causes are only beginning to be understood. The usual suspects (child poverty, parental substance abuse, or parental depression) did not change significantly; child poverty has actually fallen. It has changed how teenagers live their lives and how they relate to their environment and to each other. More isolation and loneliness is probably important.
Experts have a reasonable understanding of how to help prevent suicide and better protect yourself from similar thoughts. Not all young people are equally at risk. Although girls in America are much more likely to consider ending their lives or injure themselves while trying to do so, teenage boys are nearly three times more likely to die by suicide. Young people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual are three times more likely to feel suicidal. During the covid-19 pandemic, children who faced severe adversity such as abuse or neglect were 25 times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers with happier childhoods.
Geography is also important. As with adults, children who live in rural areas are at increased risk, in part because they have less access to care. Youth from tribal communities suffer more than any other group. Alaska’s youth suicide rate — with 42 annual deaths per 100,000 youth, the highest of any state — is four times the national average.
America is not alone. Australia, England and Mexico are among other countries that have seen a large increase in youth suicide in the last decade. In England and Wales, more than one in six children aged seven to 16 now have a probable mental health disorder, up from one in nine in 2017, a recent survey by the National Health Service found. Between 2012 and 2018, adolescent loneliness increased in 36 of the 37 countries studied, according to an article in the Journal of Adolescence.