Suicide In Children & Teens

Help Us Help Others:

Suicide in children and teens has become a significant problem. New suicide rates have been steadily climbing in the recent years. Teen suicides have roughly trippeled in the last two decades, and child suicides involving pre teen kids are also on the rise.

Surveys reveal that up to 10% of middle and high school students have either thought about or attempted suicide, and rates of suicidal ideation among at-risk groups (such as bullied youth) reach as high as 50% or 60%. Worse yet, youth suicide rates continue to climb. As William Damon writes, “Thirty years ago, our adolescent suicide rate was 3 per 100,000, already high by traditional global standards. Now it is 11 young people per 100,000, while adult rates have stayed pretty much the same. A 1993 survey found that 20 percent of high school students had made a plan to commit suicide, and that half of these students had made an actual attempt. The study also reported that these percentages had doubled in just three years. After accidents, suicide is now the leading cause of youthful death in our society.” (Damon, 1995, p. 10) Alarming as these numbers sound, rates of suicide among children and teens have trippeled again in the decades since this research was done.

Suicidal thoughts in children and teens

Sadly, life can pile atop the shoulders of the young as readily as it burdens the old, and there are far too many kids out there who struggle with thoughts of ending their life before it’s even really began. In rare instances, suicidal thoughts and gestures can be seen in kids as young as 4 or 5 years old. More commonly, suicidal thoughts tend to emerge just before puberty in troubled kids, and once adolescence arrives, thoughts of suicide become relatively commonplace, even among otherwise “normal” kids.

Suicidal thoughts in children and adolescents often go by unnoticed, ignored until it’s too late. Since suicidal ruminations commonly reach their peak at a time when struggling with life is considered routine, perhaps even to be expected, severe emotional problems may be written off as normal teenage turmoil or dismissed as a passing phase. Making matters worse, young people are often the least likely to reach out and try to talk with someone about their struggles. As suicide researchers Andrew Slaby & Lily Garfinkel write, “parents are surprised to find that a daughter who committed suicide at seventeen first felt suicidal at age ten or eleven. Their obvious question, then, is ‘Why didn’t we see it then?’ The answer is that the teen didn’t have the words, or, perhaps, she camouflaged her pain so adeptly that it went undetected.” (1994, p. 158)

Are suicidal thoughts or attempts a cry for help?

In certain cases someone might develop suicidal ideation as a cry for help or attempt suicide as a means of getting attention. But it’s quite dangerous to assume this is always the case. Even if the whole ‘cry for help’ thing is true, many kids are successful at suicide in the midst of this cry for help. They end up just as dead as those who were more determined about their actions. Secondly, assuming suicidal ideation is a cry for help can be directly opposite to the truth. As David Burns states, “Many suicidal patients want help least of all because they are 100 percent convinced they are hopeless and beyond help.” (Burns, 1980, p. 340)

This chapter explores everything readers should know about child and teen suicides. We’ll discuss how often they happen, why they occur, and what parents, teachers, and other concerned adults need to know in order to help a child who is on the edge.

Non Suicidal Self-injury

Non-suicidal self-injury is also becoming more common, especially among children and youth. This can range from simple acts of frustration, such as a child banging their head against the wall repeatedly, to more complex behaviors such as cutting or scarification. We offer information that will help parents understand why kids injure themselves and offer advice to help them address these symptoms in our section on self-injury.

More information on suicide in children and teens:

 


Help Us Help Others: